Eye of the Moon
by GoldenWips
Summary: Sakura's future had once been rose-colored and ideal, but one night a darkness swept over the land. After witnessing her people ravaged and broken, she vowed to one day be the force that would ensure they ascended from the ashes. AU.
1. Chapter 1

It began with the blare of a horn.

She was startled from her sleep, and her head whirled to her bedroom door at the sound of boots pounding the marble floors in the hall outside of her room. Climbing from her bed, she padded toward the racket and she peeked into the moonlit corridor. The castle guards shouted orders at one another, sprinting past her room – as though to battle – and she shut the door in fright.

She'd never seen the sentries in such a state, and more importantly, their actions did not bode well with her. She wondered if there was some incident outside the castle that put the men in such a state of frenzy, and darted to the window to investigate.

The night was dark, with only a crescent moon illuminating the sky. Below, fires dotted the neighboring villages, and she leaped back in alarm.

As she contemplated what to do, her mother barged into the room – crystalline hair unbound, still dressed in her nightgown, with bloodshot eyes darting this way and that. An influx of her mother's personal attendants poured in around her and swarmed to various locations in the room, yanking apart her closets and chests.

"My girl, you are safe!" Her mother exclaimed. She pushed the door shut behind her, quickly tugging the beam down to lock it.

"Mother, the village is on fire!"

"I know, my sweet girl, but we cannot dwell on that now," She declared, hastening forward to embrace her daughter. " _Now_ , I need you to be brave, can you do that for me, Sakura?"

The young girl bobbed her head in acquiescence and waited for her mother to proceed.

"Good. I knew you could, you are a _very_ good girl." Sliding delicate translucent strands behind her pointed ears, she pulled her daughter close. "You and Ino are going to go on an adventure someplace safe. When you arrive, you are not to tell anyone who you are or where you have travelled from, is that understood?"

Sakura studied her in confusion. Although her mother's eyes were stony, her voice quivered - a sound the young girl had never heard before - and dread pooled in the girl's belly. It was as though her mother was saying goodbye, but surely she would be accompanying them on this journey.

"Mother, who am I to be if I am not allowed tell people who I am?"

"You will be called Hanako, and you will be a peasant."

Sakura bristled and stepped away from her mother, her eyes locking onto Ino's – who had gone unnoticed until then – on the opposite side of the room.

"But… I am a princess," Sakura stated confusedly, as her mother exhaled loudly.

"Sakura, you will do as I say." Her mother rose to her full height, her voice no longer wavering. "Kasumi, dress her."

The servant, Kasumi, hurried forward and dressed Sakura in a pair of darkly colored trousers she had never seen among her clothing before, and a similarly colored tunic. Sakura surveyed another servant as she clothed Ino in a similar garb. Her mother spoke quietly to Ino, who nodded determinately at the queen as a cloak was fastened about her neck. A bubble of exasperation traveled to Sakura's throat. She never did like when her mother was upset with her. Arguably, she was upset without proper explanation, but Sakura knew she would be reprimanded if she said this aloud.

Appropriately dressed for travel, and each girl handed a stuffed satchel, her mother knocked on the bedroom door in a patterned manner, and an identical knock answered. The queen unbarred the door and stepped aside for a sentinel, who appeared ready for travel and Sakura's eyes widened. He would be the one leaving with them. Her mother would be staying, having made no preparations for the voyage. Sakura's lip quivered and for the first time since her mother entered her room, she wondered where her father was, or, Ino's parents for that matter. Surely, they wouldn't allow her to depart from the castle with a strange man.

The castle shivered from the force of an eruption and the servants rushed to lock the door again.

"Your Majesty, we must depart now," the man cautioned.

The queen knelt and beckoned both girls. Sakura and Ino hurried to the queen, and she wrapped her arms around them, reluctant to part from the two.

Pulling apart from them, she examined their petrified expressions, their eyes darting between her and the soldier standing behind her.

"Girls, I cannot guarantee what the future will hold for you, but I want you both to know that you are loved. Today will mark a dark day in your lives, still, you will honor your parents by living long and meaningful lives. Do not allow these events to break you, instead learn all you can from them and build your strength. Ino, your mother and father send you their love, and regret being unable to see you off," The queen stroked the girl's cheek. "Be careful to protect your identities, and be good for General Hatake. I love you both. Be safe."

She kissed them both on the forehead and ushered them toward the general, who was holding open the door to the passageway previously hidden behind a tapestry.

Without delay, he bent down and gestured for the princess and her friend to climb onto his back. Once settled, he rose and took off in a sprint.

Sakura's head swiveled around at the sound of a distant shriek and she nuzzled her head into the general's cloak, her own billowing behind her, and cursing her own helplessness. The princess grabbed at Ino's closest hand, wrapping her other tight around General Hatake's neck, at the sound of her friend's choked sobs. Only then did she begin to comprehend the situation. They would not be returning to her home and she would not see her parents again. An insurmountable sadness penetrated her mind at the realization. She observed as the general traveled with precision through the maze of halls she was only just recently becoming familiar with.

Remote footsteps echoed throughout the underground passage. Sakura was sure it must be servants with knowledge of the tunnels who made the decision to abscond the castle walls, however, when the general hurried his pace she was no longer so sure.

"Girls, your hoods," the general advised.

The two pulled said hoods over their heads and yanked down on the strings that tightened and held them in place.

The general reached the door leading to their exit and listened for a moment, ignoring the pounding footsteps behind them.

"General?" Ino whispered.

He shushed her and continued to listen, protracting the unsettling moment. Sakura's head swiveled around to observe the darkness behind them. They had to get out. Despite this truth, General Hatake was taking his time moving forward, and while she was sure he had good reason for doing so, she was a scared little girl who just said goodbye to her mother and was running from an enemy she didn't know.

"I'm scared, General Hatake," Sakura whimpered.

"Hold onto me tightly, the both of you. We'll be moving quickly. Do not raise your heads for any reason."

The door opened and the girls quickly followed his orders. There were several dwindling yells in the distance, added to the roar of the myriad of fires that were lit throughout the kingdom. The two of them bounced along with each leap the man took, occasionally loosening their hold on him accidentally when he would jump away from some force unknown to them.

After a while, he halted his movements and lowered them to the ground. Sakura raised her head to look around the forest and Ino pulled on her sleeve anxiously. The princess eyed her confusedly, pivoting on her foot and catching a glimpse of the castle, her home, in flames.

"We'll continue moving forward, girls."

"The castle—"

"Is no longer your concern."

"But, mother—"

"We will continue toward safety, Hanako. You will not question your mother's orders," he stated, sharply.

Sakura turned back to the castle once more with shimmering, tear-filled eyes, watching as the flames danced toward the moon challengingly, and looked back at the dark, dense forest before them, taking hold of Ino's hand and promising herself that she would get through tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

_For the previous chapter, I did not establish a disclaimer. I'm rectifying that now._

 _ **Disclaimer**_ _ **:** I do not own anything Kishimoto created. That's all._

* * *

Hanako opened, and quickly clamped her eyes shut to the invasion of unwelcome rays. Waves lapped at sun-warmed cheeks, and she coughed when the saltwater slithered into her nose with the rising tide. Her arms quivered with the effort of rising above the sand scratching between her breasts, and she deemed it impossible to use her arms for anything strenuous after. Which was a pity, because she was sure she would require them for _exactly_ that. With determination to see herself removed from her disagreeable environment, she opened her eyes again – squinting against the sunbeams – and took purchase of her surroundings.

The beach was devoid of life, without so much as an anchored fishing boat. Hanako recognized the stillness in the air as an omen.

She disengaged stray seaweed from her ankles, distractedly eyeing the trees that held unknown pastures beyond them. Unable to recall how she washed up on this mysterious paradise, she resolved to search for clues before turning to the island, neither was safe and there wasn't one she preferred over the other.

Hanako rose from her coarse seat and her hair danced along her lower back. She reached to her scalp with curious fingers and tugged forward a handful of strands to examine them.

Surely it wasn't practical to have hair so long, and she had no memory of maintaining such a length. She resolved she would have to cut it to avoid entanglement with the branches awaiting her arrival in the jungle. As she brought a handful to her face, Hanako was shocked to discover a petal pink hue slipping between her fingers. This development was more than unsettling, for she remembered her hair as night's equal. She placed her hands on the hips of her ripped cloth pants and stared out at the ocean in confusion. _Perhaps I'm remembering wrong,_ she thought.

Sifting through the sands with her bare hands and feet, her search proceeded with hardly any vigor. She didn't hope to find anything on this beach and knew it was likely that any items that washed up with her were long buried, but it helped to be sure. As her search continued, her thirst increased, and she gave up in favor of finding a fresh water source. The waves splashed with a hiss when she turned away from them.

" _Sakura!_ "

Her head jerked at the sound of the ocean's disembodied rasp, and she eyed the calm waters over her shoulder. Seeing nothing amiss, she turned and resumed her trek in the direction of the jungle, until a deep growl escaped the tree line.

" _Sakura, danger awaits you!_ " The waves stretched out to her, liquid beckoning her back to the shoreline, attempting to extend its reach.

The warning discouraged her, and she turned halfway. In her peripheral, Hanako saw a creature lift into the sky and her feet backed away toward the now howling sea. The creature flapped its wings above her and opened its jaw, making visible rows of sharp teeth that she expected from such a predator. Shimmering from the base of its throat was a steady sunset whose destruction she could hear crackling. She took several steps back until the water caressed her ankles, and when the creature ducked its head to release its anguish on the tranquil island, the ocean hauled Hanako into its embrace, the searing heat mere seconds from her outstretched hand. The anger in its eye was not hers, but it was given to her all the same.

Water stroked her limbs and whispered soft assurances to her, she could still see the creature's wrath above her and opened her mouth to reassure it, only to have the water seep into her throat.

 **...**

Sakura scratched at her throat and shot up from the grass, soaked to the bone and hacking up water.

"Nice to have you back with us, dear," a voice above her proclaimed.

Someone tried to push a wooden cup filled with water into her hand, only to have her push it back. She had more water in her throat than she knew what to do with and she couldn't help but think, H _ow could the solution possibly be to have more?_

Whispers and giggles were beginning to register, her dream all but forgotten as she glared up at her assailant.

The woman above her raised a brow at the defiance painted on Sakura's expression, her blonde pigtails swinging as she leaned down further. Sakura quickly ducked her head and eyed her hands, now nervously toying with stray threads on her pants.

"Wipe that guilt off your face and look at me, kid." Sakura sighed and did as she was told. "Just because today is the ceremony doesn't mean it's time to rest. I get that you excelled in your training but drop that holier than thou attitude, or I'll beat it out of you in first blood. Got it?"

Gnawing at her bottom lip, she squinted and searched the woman's blue eyes for any actual threat of violence. Finding only a warning, Sakura inclined her head. "Yes, Chief Tsunade."

The chief smiled and stood to her full height. "Good. Now then, kiddies, how about we take a crack at it one more time?"

Flipping a pigtail over her shoulder, Tsunade explained their objective for the second time – which she blatantly announced was for Sakura's benefit – and gave the young adults in the circle assurances about their upcoming performance. The chief ended her speech by calling for them to get into position. Sakura jumped up, fishing for her moon-stone in her chest binding, to form a tighter circle with her peers,

The chief smiled and clapped twice. "You know what to do."

Tinkles of laughter disrupted the forest's eerie daytime countenance, mingling with the wind and dancing about Sakura's awareness.

Ignoring the giggles, she lifted her left palm to the sky with the first drum beat, in sync with the other boys and girls in the circle. The twelve of them stood with their backs to one another, a smooth magnetic stone carried in each right hand. They reached behind themselves with the same hand, blindly but confidently piling their hands in a tower with their palms facing upward.

Sakura glared at the tree before her, its branches blanketed with the blue twinkling lights of fae-folk in their wisp forms and scorned them in her head for being blessed as bystanders to this recurring nightmare of a ceremony. Sure, the rite itself was very important to her – as it was a rite of passage among the fae – but, with the drawn-out practice times and screeching of Chief Tsunade to, "Get it right! It's so simple, you imbeciles!" … It was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the same enthusiasm she had at the commencement of her training. Not to mention the touch of sweaty palms above and below her own.

At the second drum beat, each of the participants proceeded to thrust their heels into the earth and bent their bodies forward with their hands maintaining their joined positioning. Sakura closed her eyes and ceased her pessimistic stream of consciousness, instead swaying her shoulders to the rhythm of the tribal tune. She bent to one knee with her companions, and recited the opening:

"With one hand we lend our strength,

With the other we forge a covenant with the Earth and the Moon to sustain an oath of unification."

Midnight colored hair slid completely from her shoulders as she bowed her head and summoned faint a faint flow of magic to her right hand. The other members of the group did the same while hastily repeating the middle of the incantation, "We forge a covenant with the Earth and the Moon," and the sensation of her skin progressively warming into a glow sparked excitement in Sakura's chest. The adrenaline caused her to momentarily forget her ire, as it usually did, and the surrounding forest was steadily embraced by a radiant glow that nearly overpowered the sun's beams.

The drummers increased their speed and the circle retreated, shuffling backward and raising their right hands that were each consumed in an ash tinted flame. They all allowed their individual flames to hiss above them. Ghostly whispers caressed the sharp shells of Sakura's ears, beckoning her to give herself over to them, and weak wind shuffled stray hairs about her face. She allowed the want to submit herself to the silvery voices, they promised a wholeness that she could never imagine, and the few bystanders that were allowed in the vicinity buzzed with anticipation.

Just as the flames reached their peak, Sakura's body cooled rapidly, shocking her senses, and white spots danced across her vision. Tsunade stopped them from proceeding with her own magic. Falling forward, Sakura's hair created a dark curtain between her and the rest of the world and she stared at the ground. She noted that she could see each grain of dirt with astounding clarity. Then she blinked. When she opened her eyes again, her sight was returned to normal.

Simultaneously tucking her small stone back into her binding and lifting her head, she eyed the frowns dotting faces in the crowd.

Gravel crunched as the blonde approached, reclaiming Sakura's attention. "Ah, Kagami. Food?"

Ino's eyes rolled in mock-bliss. "You really know the words to get me there, Forehead." She threw her arm around Sakura's shoulder, who responded by trying and failing to shrug it off. "I'm so glad the chief didn't make us practice flight simulation again. You know, for such a short rite it takes up a shit load of time."

Sakura hummed in agreement and her eyes roamed over their companions, many of the waving when her eyes landed on them, and she smiled when she found the person she was looking for.

"Maemi!" The girl in question started and pushed too-long bangs from her face. She nodded at Sakura and approached them with a curious expression. "We're getting lunch, want to come?"

A dazzling smile lifted Maemi's cheeks and she nodded, "Certainly, Hanako." The girls began their trek toward the marketplace where vendors were setting up for the nights festivities. "Oh! Kagami, it nearly slipped my mind to tell you. My father bid me to inform you—"

 **...**

"— to inform you that your presence is required."

The slender fingers of the man being addressed, tucked raven strands neatly into a band at the base of his neck. He withheld his answer to the summons, although both parties were very aware that he could not disobey the order. The soldier fidgeted, a movement unbecoming of a man in the king's guard.

"Lord Itachi?" the guard inquired.

Itachi's eyes snapped to the man's nervous countenance. "What is your name?"

Shifting from his left foot to his right, the man cleared his throat and answered, "Nomura Junichi, My Lord."

He stared at the younger man in contemplation. Nomura's expression was bashful where most members of the king's guard were stoic. This did not bode well with Itachi, knowing that it would mean certain death for this man-child in the future. He turned languidly and met Nomura's eyes.

"Be careful not to wear your emotions on your sleeve, Nomura." Itachi strode past the man, his steps unhurried. "You are the only thing standing between yourself and the sword of another."

Itachi heard the guard release a shuddering breath when he stepped out of his quarters. He knew the man would not deign look through his things, his fear of Itachi would thwart any attempts at following through with the king's true orders.

His gaze followed the marble floors of the smaller hallway he walked, that lead him directly to the throne room without the added chance of encountering others. There was no opulence here, something Itachi was grateful for. He longed for simplicity in a palace of splendor.

Stepping into the room, through the hidden entrance, Itachi made his way to the king's side. The court was watching with eager anticipation as a young girl, and a friend to Itachi – he realized with dismay – belted out a song worthy of a nightingale. Outwardly, the only sign of his alarm was a twitch of his fingers. Inwardly, this performance caused his heart to clench. He had warned her previously of the dangers that accompanied the king's regard. It was her family's attempt to gain his majesty's favor, Itachi was sure, another thing he had cautioned her against. But, she was ever an obedient girl, and would likely follow the path her mother and father laid down for her. He knew that if they succeeded in their venture – like many before her – it would end in her ruin. Itachi watched as his king's expression shuddered with a calculating eagerness. He wanted nothing more than to steal her away from the throne room and conceal her in an undisclosed location for her own protection, and his own peace of mind. But, he knew that he could do no such thing, and imagining it merely increased his helplessness.

When the girl finished her song, the court erupted in applause, each of them whispering to each other of an unlikely skill emerging from a lowborn family. The crowd gasped when the king stood from his throne and applauded her performance.

"Certainly, my girl, your talent was weaved into your soul by the gods!"

She blushed prettily and bowed. "I am not deserving of such high praise from his majesty, you bestow too great an honor."

He waved his hand in disagreement and descended the steps to his throne. The crowd lining the sides whispered in shock, watching as he reached a hand under her chin and bid her to rise.

"What did you say your name was, dear girl?"

Her doe-like eyes widened. "Midori, Your Majesty."

"A charming name, for an endlessly beautiful girl. It's no wonder my nephew keeps you in his company. You are truly mesmerizing, Midori."

 _Ah_ , Itachi thought. He now understood why he was summoned. It had been discovered that Itachi made the mistake of befriending someone. He could feel nothing but a bountiful guilt for what was to come. Itachi breathed deeply, ignoring some stares that landed on his tense person. He knew better, yet could not resist the urge for the company of a friend. Now the girl would suffer for his selfishness.

 **...**

Sliding her hand through Maemi's hair, Ino circled her and grasped her shoulder, making them both face Sakura. "Why the moon-drop eyes, didn't like the food?"

Sakura scratched the back of her head, uncomfortable with the atmosphere.

"Not at all, Kagami, the food was lovely." She sighed. "I'm just worried for tonight's ceremony… it would disappoint my family if I didn't get my wings."

Sakura frowned and Ino sucked her teeth knowingly. "You can tell your old man to shove it."

The blonde ruffled Maemi's dark hair and threw her arm around the shorter girl's shoulder, urging her to walk further into the town's market. Sakura rolled her eyes at Ino's obvious affection for the girl, she walked behind them observing the native villagers and foreigners setting up their stands for the night's festival. Sakura always felt that they set everything up far too late in the day, it was beyond noon, and yet, nothing was ready. She supposed this was because the celebration lasted well into the morning, but it was truly nettling to have to wait for twilight's arrival to enjoy her favorite foods, especially when some appeared only on this night every year, and the crafty fae who created the treats she favored would wisp out of sight when she began to hint at the desire to learn their recipes. This year, she would have to perform her rites and as that began at nightfall – preceded by donning the outfit she painstakingly made for herself and suffering through other preparations she was sure her friend had planned – she wouldn't be able to eat again until well after midnight. And that was _if_ the ceremony didn't drain her of all her energy.

A girl tripped several yards in front of her, her descent stopped only by her mother's hand grasping the back of her green tunic. Similar to the way Kakashi would grab at her collar every time she made to run from the general, it was an undignified way for someone to hold you – or she had thought that previously – whenever she spotted a mother doing it, though, it didn't seem as harsh. She wondered if her mother had ever performed the action on her, and quickly dispelled the thought because she remembered that as a princess she hadn't been allowed to run outside of the safety of her own chambers.

The other girls slowed to a stop and she watched Ino talk Maemi down from full-blown panic about the ceremony's outcome, and Sakura realized she felt truly removed. Thoughts of her mother inadvertently bid her to wonder what the ritual would have been like in the castle, with her and Ino's parents in attendance. She could not remember if she had been to the castle's celebration as a child, another memory lost to time.

"On your knees, child!"

Sakura's attention was captured by the order. She looked away from her friends – whose attention was drawn from their conversation – and to her left, where a royal guard had his foot on the shoulder of a boy barely beyond puberty.

"What's the matter, kid, can't use that mouth for anything other than thieving other people's food?" the voice of a different guard spat.

She turned fully to observe the scene, as did many of the villagers who were walking through the market and those assisting in the building several stands. Her hand twitched when the soldier kicked at the boy's shoulder. She recognized the boy as the brother of a friend of hers, one who would be performing with her tonight. Takuya, she remembered his name being.

Sakura knew the boy hadn't stolen anything, even before the stand owner began to plead for the guards to cease their abuse. The guard would flaunt his power, as they all did, to instill fear and subsequent order to the citizens of a village they did not reside in.

Sakura took a step forward, her heart clenching at the plight Takuya faced. Ino clamped a hand onto her shoulder and shook her head wildly when Sakura met her eye.

"How's about I unzip, and you show me a real reason for silence?" The guard queried with contempt. If not for the cruel expression on the man's face, Sakura would have thought the guard attractive. Blond tufts of hair framing a heart shaped face and green scales dotting his temples. A high-level dragon, but still low enough to not be able to completely disguise himself.

Smacking Ino's hand aside and ignoring Maemi's fearful pleas, she pushed past everyone in her path until she reached Takuya. Slapping her hands onto his biceps, Sakura bid him to stand. The guard scowled at her and she took in his gangly frame and knew behind his lanky body there was strength. There always was with dragons. That fact made them haughty, and their hubris could be manipulated into defeat. At least, that was what Kakashi always said, but she had never had the opportunity to prove him right. Pulling pranks on unsuspecting guards and publicly challenging them were two entirely incomparable situations. Pushing the boy behind her, she heard Ino usher him away.

"You want some instead, girl? You seem eager," he snickered, bumping shoulders with his dark eyed comrade.

Sakura smiled softly and brushed the fringe from her eyeline. "I don't think you have anything of quality to offer."

His act of mirth halted, and his blue eyes hardened. "Watch your step, girl."

She stretched her arms above her head, noting how his eyes travelled her along her body and she allowed him a sharp laugh.

"I'm standing still."

As she let her arms come down, his stepped forward to strike her and she sidestepped his path. Hooking her foot around his ankle as she ducked out of the way of his fist, he stumbled and she took the opportunity to elbow him firmly in the back of his neck, effectively knocking the skinny man over.

His companion took the attack on his friend personally and it was near comical how quickly he moved to strike at her. Stockier than his friend, he tried to put his obvious strength behind the attack of his sharpened staff. Her offense was too grievous to allow her to live, apparently. Her hand stole into the loose opening of the bag hanging at her hip as he approached, and she blew blue glittered dust into his face. His step faltered, and he sneezed, his body's attempt to expel the irritant caused him to ascend. Each sneeze brought him a little closer to the sky and the gathered crowd collectively guffawed at his unfortunate predicament.

Behind her, the other sentry rose from the ground and in his hasty embarrassment, attempted to rush her, but she was steps ahead of him. Sakura dove to the ground when he got close enough and he tripped over her. She removed the unneeded sash that circled her waist and looped it around the floating guard's ankle, his sneezes and curses meshed together. _A sputtering fool,_ she thought. She grabbed the floored guard by his beautiful blond hair – tying the rest of the ribbon around the man's neck, while he quite literally clawed at her hands.

Each new sneeze from his companion choked him, the dust she used on the stocky guard proving strong. The villagers had taken to throwing food items at them, including the owner from the stand the boy was supposed to have stolen from.

Sakura stepped back, and someone handed her a basket of strawberries, thanking her for her defense of Takuya's honor. It was his mother. An older woman with gray strands spotting her bob-length red hair.

The fun did not last long, however, when more guards appeared on the scene, condemning the people for their actions. While they berated the vegetable and fruit toting villagers, an arm looped around Sakura's. Startled she tried to break free of the seemingly unfamiliar touch, until she realized it was Ino.

"Come, Hanako," Ino's brows were drawn together in anger. "You've taken on another unnecessary risk."

Pulling the darker haired girl along, Ino dragged Sakura far enough away that when the guards questioned who had caused this ruckus, they were long gone.

 **...**

Itachi stepped into his uncle's chambers, instantly lowering his eyes when he noted that Midori was sat across his uncle at the table, her parents seated between them.

He stood at attention and waited for his king to acknowledge his presence.

"Surely, it was a daunting task for one so delicate," the king stated warmly.

Midori, whose gaze sought his from the moment he stepped into the room, removed her eyes from Itachi's person. Her smile returning, after having fallen when Itachi made no move to greet her.

"Of course, Your Majesty, but what I lack in strength, I make up for in stealth," she replied softly. "Itachi has taught me many stealth techniques to remain undetected in any pursuit during our friendship"

Her use of his name, meant to coax him into meeting her eyes, caused his breath to hitch at her naivety. Every word of her praise toward him would be her future undoing. He remained stoic, his passive expression dissuaded her – he hoped – and his uncle finally tilted his face to look Itachi in the eye.

"Is that so?" When she nodded, the king smiled pleasantly. "It is funny you point out my nephew's strength in stealth, because I have called him here for exactly that reason."

He took this as his cue to look up at the king.

"Nephew, there has been an uprising in the south. The fae have apparently revolted against the guards in the village hidden in the leaves, while they have quelled the rebellion – they cannot locate the culprit who incited it. I'd hoped you would be more efficient in bringing the traitor to meet the king's justice."

His uncle gave a good-natured smile, one Itachi knew to be false. His smiles never reached his eyes. Itachi bowed to his uncle, with a fist across his chest, and made to leave the room when a silvery voice called out to him.

"Itachi!"

He sighed subtly and turned to look at Midori from the corner of his eye.

"Be safe."

Her eyes softened, though her body remained tense, her fingernails digging into the wood of her armrest. Midori knew she was in danger, Itachi deduced. Her newfound status meant that she could not run from this, but he acknowledged her desire to escape. Had felt it himself on many occasions. He looked beyond her, to his uncle whom the other occupants of the room were not facing. When their eyes met, his uncle allowed him a sinister smile.

Returning his gaze to the young woman, he nodded and made a swift exit.

* * *

Oh, I'm so horrible. It's been almost a year.

Trust that I meant to update this a _very_ long time ago. Truly. It was hard to get this out, and I'm not entirely sure I'm enjoying the finished product. I've never written a story that's had multiple chapters before, so this will be a shared struggle for all of us. I will be updating more frequently, because there's a lot I want to do with this story. Please, be patient with me - and let me know what you think. I want to get better at writing and writing this is me taking the steps to achieve that goal.

Also, if anyone can find the artist who created the image that I'm using as the cover art for this story, please let me know. I want to link their work. I can't seem to find it on google anymore, so a little help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Leave a review letting me know what you liked!


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer**_ _ **:** I do not own anything Kishimoto created. That's all._

* * *

There was something about being scolded by an authority figure that made the world slow to a crawl. During the time it took to be reprimanded, Sakura agonized over the wayward strand tickling her eyelid. Discipline allowed her to remain still, though she internally fussed over the strand's movement between her lashes when she blinked. As Tsunade yelled – and she listened with half an ear – she thought of how she and Ino would joke that in these moments, anything was interesting if you paid enough attention. This time, it was her sweaty hands and her strong desire to wash them that drove her near insanity.

Tsunade paused in her tirade to address the girl's guardian, who stood staring out of the window nearest to him and behind the blonde.

"Don't you have anything to say, Hatake?"

Kakashi sighed, pushing away from the wall and giving Tsunade a wide berth in his pursuit of Sakura. He slapped his left hand on his ward's right shoulder, Tsunade snorted and placed her hands on her hips.

"I have a lot to say." He lifted his hand away from her to scratch through the dark hair at the nape of his neck. "Sakura…"

She tilted her head to meet his eye. Hatake's usually crinkled eyes were smooth, and his eyes stern with disappointment. She raised an eyebrow at him. With their reactions, anyone else would think that she'd beat the young boy in the marketplace herself that afternoon, rather than simply humiliating the guards who sought to harm him.

"Yes, Uncle?" she inquired, warily.

Kakashi removed his hand from the back of his head – and in a movement that was slow enough for her to catch, but that she knew was testing her audacity to think of ducking – and smacked her on the back of the head.

Sakura hardly flinched at the attack and Kakashi's eyes crinkled with barely contained mirth.

"You'll be more careful in the future, won't you?"

Sakura's eyebrow twitched. She dragged out a moment of silence and recalled her days at the castle, where she was the revered princess that no one would have dared to strike. Her mouth curled into a forced and fearsome smile and she swore to herself that she would be certain to return the favor.

"Of _course_ , Uncle."

Tsunade stormed forward in her heeled shoes and slammed her hands onto her desk. Sakura wished they would wrap this conversation up, next time she was certain she would beat the person in peril herself – surely that would end in a far shorter tongue lashing than she'd received thus far.

"Is that all you have to say!? Now is not the time to be a man of action instead of words, Hatake," Tsunade growled and grabbed Sakura's hand, pulling her forward. "Sakura, it is one of my priorities to keep you safe and I can't do that if you willingly make yourself a target of the king's guard. This is not the Ethereal Court, the king has jurisdiction over the entirety of the western reaches. You _know_ this."

"I do," Sakura admitted with a sigh.

Her chief's hand curled firmly around her wrist. "Then why do you continue?"

"With all due respect, Lady Tsunade, it's been eight years – there is no longer an active search! Even if there was still a soul seeking the bounty, whomever it might be wouldn't know where to begin."

"You don't know that, Sakura!" Tsunade snarled.

The brunette scratched her shoulder. "I have a significant advantage."

Her superior turned to her, a menacing smile snaking its way across her face. Sakura's eyes widened, and she leaned away from her chief in a sheer moment of panic. She was smart, she could have thought of a more convincing argument. Now, she'd talked herself into a circle. There was nothing worse than moments in which she would have to admit a failure, and Tsunade was exactly the type of person who would syphon it out of her prey – student or no.

"An advantage that would be compromised if you continue to bring attention to yourself and my villagers," Tsunade replied, gleefully. "You do know, Sakura, that your actions will ultimately fall on more creatures than just yourself."

The girl turned her head to the ceiling. Had she stayed in bed this morning and feigned illness until she was summoned for her rites, this could all have been avoided. Her conscience knew, however, that had she done that, the boy on whose behalf she intervened would have been publicly beaten. Sakura dropped her head into a nod, choosing to concede rather than allow the argument to persist. She understood the point the older fae was making, but she also felt that she had a responsibility to her people – even if they weren't _her_ people anymore.

The chief frowned at her but did not say whatever was on her mind in that moment and dismissed the young woman and her guardian with a wave. Sakura thought she saw the two share a look but ignored it in favor of taking the lead out of their superior's chambers. Kakashi, she knew, was collecting his thoughts to form a coherent conversation about her actions and she chose to fill the silent moment with soaking up every bit of sun she could. It was her own misfortune that she didn't tan the way Ino did – something she wholeheartedly envied her for and expressed to the blonde every moment she could – but it never took away from her love of the sun.

She wondered about the humans tricked into their realm, how unforgiving their sun god could be to those more delicate beings who were accustomed to a star that did not radiate such intense magic. Sakura was glad of many things, but she was gladdest that she was not born human. A cursed birth, to have so little time to experience the world. Even an elderly human died in what was a faerie's infancy. Kakashi's indifferent gait met her own unhurried steps, as Sakura's mind filled with more thoughts of humans' mortality.

"Uncle."

"Hanako."

They both looked at each other, startled that they'd spoken at the same time, and Kakashi lifted a hand to scratch at the back of his head.

"You can go first." His exposed eye crinkled.

She thought to argue with him, but she was sure she'd enjoy her own conversation to whatever he was going to say about their earlier meeting.

"Do you envy the mortality of humans?"

His eye widened in surprise, hand clenching at the back of his head. The house loomed nearer as he considered her question. Sakura was sure she took him by surprise, but Kakashi was ever the educator and she knew that he would answer a question before admonishing her or Ino any day.

"There have been times that I have."

"What circumstance would push someone to want to give up their immortality? Humans are _so_ … fragile. Anything could be their undoing, why would one want to subject themselves to such a painful existence?"

They reached the door of their two-story cottage and Kakashi opened it for her, she nodded her thanks and walked to the table in their small kitchen. They each took a seat, happy to be inside and away from the noise overtaking their village.

Kakashi cleared his throat to respond, "Those who have experienced unimaginable horrors, envy a human's mortality. Humans may suffer trauma, and like any other being will either move beyond it or be trapped in their own grief, but their lives are short. There is a promise in that brief lifespan that either time or death will heal their wounded souls."

"Isn't that the same for both?" Her brows scrunched together.

"Well, yes. In a way. We have nothing but time, and we are fortunate enough to be born with unyielding strength, and to have companions to make memories with who are not susceptible to death and decay in the way that humans are. But, there are some wounds that even time and company cannot heal. So, those afflicted by that mentality envy the mortality of humans because it ends for them. Humans only have to live with their hurts for a short time, but we suffer with ours eternally. If we allow them to consume us, of course."

"Humans could consider their lifetime a millennium," Sakura replied.

"Sure."

"I suppose if I were the last of faekind living among humans, it would indeed be a sorrowful existence."

Kakashi leaned back in his seat in lieu of answering. She thought about what he said and met his haunted eye. All the solutions that came to her were sound, but not without consequence.

"Why not just make themselves forget? There are spells and Threaders who could do such a thing."

Sakura watched as some unforgotten hurt flashed through his eyes before he looked away from her and to the sitting room window.

"Would you willingly erase all memories of your parents, niece?"

Her heart skipped a beat and she removed her hands from their place on the table. Her parents. Would she forget them? She had the tools to do so. It was dangerous how readily available things like that were, anyone could make someone forget, willingly or otherwise. Yes, her immortal soul was wounded, but how far would she be willing to go to heal? To forget her parents and their rule over what was once a peaceful kingdom. To forget her title. To forget the murderer who sat on her father's throne. Her father. Her lips thinned. She couldn't do it. It was horrible enough that they were dead, but to not recognize their names on the lips of others – to not remember the people they were behind throne room doors, that would be a death of a different kind.

She rose and stalked toward the steps without thanking him for his insight. They were both lost in their thoughts. Later, when she held her pillow close and drifted into her dreamworld, she would wonder – not for the first time – about Kakashi's life and what kind of things he must have endured to bring that dusky shade of sorrow to his eye.

Her eyes twitched as she realized she'd distracted him with a heavy enough topic that he'd forgotten to give her a punishment for her heroics.

* * *

"Hanako, you look amazing!" Ino sang.

Sakura was happy for the validation. She'd worked herself to the bone to stitch together her receiving outfit, and she was ecstatic to sashay around the field in it. She felt like tonight was for her, although she was sure everyone else thought the same of themselves, and it made her desire to overshadow everyone else's efforts palpable.

Or at least, she thought so.

She brushed her hands against the purple-white replica of the hydrangea lining the off-shoulder neckline of her dress and smoothed them down to where they scattered in a waterfall pattern onto sky blue tulle. The candlelight flickered against the shimmer of inactive faerie dust sprinkled throughout the material.

She looked like spring night, and Ino the night sky in deep violet. The blonde's dress a daring strapless with sheer triangular panels across her ribs. While some decided to work their fingers into a bloody mess for their attire, Ino found the seamstress responsible for courtesan's outfitting's and commissioned a dress that it would near impossible for wings to damage. Sakura knew the elders would grumble throughout the night about Ino's choice, but she also knew the walking corpses were too terrified of the blonde to address her directly.

"Thanks, Kagami, you too. Maybe I should've gotten one to match."

Ino grinned at her. "Don't let the crones hear you say that, they'll think I'm corrupting their little flower."

"Are you insinuating that I'm short?" Sakura raised a brow.

"Even if I was, your forehead more than makes up for it," Ino crooned. "So, you know, nothing to worry about there."

Sakura kept her expression carefully devoid of emotion. "I'll remember that the next time I have the opportunity to be corrupted. I'll have some poor boy lick my forehead, that'll _really_ get things started."

Ino's eyes widened and watered as she snorted out a laugh. Sakura grabbed a leather corset lying on the bed nearest to her and threw it at her friend's face.

"What's this I hear about licking, ladies?"

Ino paused in the middle of rolling up the corset. Sakura, mid-duck quickly glanced to their guardian in the doorway and Ino took the distraction as an opportunity to hit the black-haired teen directly in the face.

Sakura sputtered in indignation and yelled, "Bitch!"

"Ha!"

"It seems we'll have to train more rigorously, Hanako. Such a pathetic display from my star pupil."

Sakura's expression smoothed into a smirk.

"What the hell, Kakashi!?"

The crinkles by Kakashi's eye deepened. "You're my second favorite, Kagami."

"There's only two of us!" She yelled, in mock rage. "Get out, you old pervert."

Sakura snorted and straightened with a grin, picking up a feather pillow and tossing it at Kakashi on her way to retrieve her moonstone from inside her ottoman.

"Time to go?"

Kakashi nodded once at Sakura's question and the girls followed him out of their bedroom doorway, still mocking one another. Sakura's eyes roved over her blonde counterpart, the ends of her loose pale hair dancing in a magic-filled breeze, and her heart leapt.

They stepped out, and overjoyed neighbors ambled toward them. A few of them wasting no time in giving Ino a side-eye and whispering behind obvious hands. Sakura was sure Ino either noticed them or was being selectively oblivious as she zeroed in on her favorite ladies. The neighbors approached and placed flower veils on the heads of both, fussing and ushering the girls off with prayers to the moon goddess.

Sakura secured her headpiece around her up-do, in response to Ino's mischievous grin. The blonde grabbed her hand and ran in the direction of the village center.

Twinkle lights and lanterns bathed their path in a kaleidoscopic of colors. The receivers weren't the only ones taking advantage of the occasion to dress for the festivities. Sakura spotted entire families clothed in finery, with embroidered sigils of houses long disbanded. A few of the sigils mimicked their moon-mark's, the stones glistening in the candlelight.

That was their village's pride during the war, accepting refugees from the destruction of the Tsuki's usurper, and in doing so doubling their population and generating a successful revenue for themselves. There were still a few that treated the refugees as outsiders. Though, many of those were village elders who were thousands of years old and Sakura was aware that a number of them simply did so out of crabbiness.

Music and laughter permeated the air. Sakura and Ino joined hands, gliding over to the circle of other teens where they all clasped onto each other in a moment of frightened ecstasy. They spun in time with the music, dizzying themselves in the purest joy. Mothers and fathers arranged sporadically around their children, throwing glittery confetti at the dancing circle.

Sakura did her best to keep up as laughter bubbled from her throat. The hands that held hers were sticky with perspiration, the circle spinning round and round with her between Ino and a distant relative of Maemi's – Hideo, she believed his name was. It was rare, even in times of peace to have so many participate in the ascension ceremony. The birth of fae children were few and far in between. Their birth's coincided with her parents' reign, something the villagers whispered their old thanks and oaths about – not knowing that their old princess was living in the heart of their home. As she glanced at the faces around her, wholeness expanded within her chest. At that moment, and all those before, the group of people that danced around the circle with her were little more than humans with a fae lifespan, relying on spells and charms to perform their magic. Now, they would be fae in the truest sense.

Spikes of fear and anxiety crept into her heart, of the possibility that with her ascension she would be chosen as a member of her mother's people, those of the Ethereal Court. There was a desire to be the strongest among them, especially where the boys were concerned, but with that power came responsibility that she wasn't sure she wanted. She pushed those fears from her mind, choosing merriment over unease.

They continued their celebrating until a large yellow wisp found itself in the center of the circle, blinding them with its transformation before Tsunade landed on her heels. The music slowed to a crawl and she scowled at their finery, until all were silent, and a grin slid across her pale features.

"Excitement is brewing. We've worked hard these past weeks to prepare you all for your vows, are you all ready?" Sakura gave a determined nod, in sync with her peers. "Good. As far as speeches go, I'm not going to get flowery on you, I never have. The road ahead will be a rough one – coming into power has never been easy for any generation. You have all been fortunate enough to come into your magic gradually and comfortably, in this time of _relative_ peace. Not everyone is afforded that luxury.

I cannot tell you what to do with your power. I can only hope that you take what I have taught you, and what I have yet to teach you, into the world to be used wisely."

The chief met Sakura's eye and said, "May Kiyo bless you."

Tsunade's eyes flicked to the girl's peers and she clapped for them to hit the gravel while the goddess was still young. Sakura engaged in small talk with Maemi who caught up to them, dressed in what could only be the outfit of a virginal sacrifice – or sleep attire, depending on where one's mind was. Their path glowed with the essence of wisp-fae, their whispers caressing the shells of her ears. She shivered in response. Sakura knew the transformed fae meant well, even if they _had_ always been a bit creepy. She wondered if her opinion would change once she was able to do the same thing.

The procession picked up a great many stragglers on their way to the eastern sector of the village, all of them excited to witness another ascension. There were no children, of course, because of the age-old fear that the abundance of magic during their holiday would somehow negatively affect the younglings own budding power. The flowers along the edges of the path leading to the Niji Field were open and facing upward straining for the moonbeams to shine on them in true pick-me fashion.

A circle of bowls lined the area they would be seated, accompanied by small, sturdy wooden buckets. The cups filled with sugar water to help ease the taste of magic after the ceremony. For some, it would taste as sweet as honey, but for others it would be akin to ash on their tongues. Sometimes, even more rancid than that. If the magic was powerful, the taste was putrid. Sakura didn't know which to hope for.

They all took their places, Sakura turned behind her to catch Ino's attention before she sat, her companion gave her a reassuring smile and settled down with the rest.

Tsunade erected a barrier to contain any flares that might escape the fledgling fae. While she waited for her chief to conclude the preparations, Sakura felt anxiety creep into her chest once again. An almost foreboding feeling began to consume her, and she did not allow herself to investigate the gathering crowd. Her hands were sweating again.

The ground beneath Tsunade's feet crunched, making Sakura's ears twitch with anticipation. She cleared from their small circle with a steady, "Begin," and their chant twisted like smoke into the air.

With each sway to the beat, Sakura's shoulders met with pressure – different than what they'd practiced, but something Tsunade warned them of. They summoned their magic in unison, shuffled backward with flame covered hands and submitted to the goddess' whispers. A familiar glow encompassed her skin and she shimmered like starlight with the help of the aged fairy dust she powdered herself. When her flame reached new heights, Sakura felt a pressure in her chest. Her chant was steady and as the pressure continued to grow, it traveled upward. Her body was like a burning star on the verge of collapse. Anticipation consumed her and as the light traveled her vision improved. It reminded her of every time she tried to poke her head out of a closed window that was so clean she didn't notice it was there… and she realized her eyes were glowing with the same light that protruded from her chest.

Each of them removed their hand from the tower of shared flame they created and joined one hand with the other. Sakura pushed her left hand through the fire that already consumed her right and brought the flame closer to her chest. She could see herself clearly in the reflection of the moonstone and it called to her so frantically that she began to weep. She had never felt so wanted — no, _needed_. The stone hovered over her palms, she watched as it traveled nearer to her face. A weight was being pushed onto her body. She fought against it with borrowed strength and she could hear the cries of struggle all around her. Her body froze, and the stone came to her, and like a babe just learning how to return the affection of its mother, gave her a light peck high on her cheekbone at the corner of her eye and fused with her skin. It was _like_ being skinned.

The flame consumed her body then, and she howled at the blaze. The bones at her back cracked and she was almost sure that the pain would have thrown her forward, if not for the magic holding her in place. Similar howls and shouts leapt from the others. She wondered if the bystanders could hear them, if they would intervene. How could any of them have experienced this pain and not have thought to warn their children? Perhaps Tsunade omitted the detail from their practice with the assumption that someone would back out. She didn't know, all Sakura knew was that her cheek and back were likely melting from her body and she felt every second of agony with an acuteness that outshone the cramps from her quarterly bleeding a thousand times over. She was clawing at the ground, trying to escape the snap of her shoulder blades, until she realized she wasn't clawing with her hands.

Flames lapped at her skin, both burning and soothing. The moonstone was gone. She heard the recovering sighs around her, although her own flame refused to die down. Instead, her cuspids elongated, poking at her bottom lip that she had previously been gnawing on, and drew blood. A burning rash formed along the only part of her shoulder she could see.

Suddenly, as she narrowed her eyes to get a better look at what seemed to be a strange side effect, the magic released her with an almost euphoric brush against her lips and she slouched over and fell on her side. Her mouth tasted like death and decay. She couldn't even reach the bucket to vomit and tried to hold it in her mouth for as long as possible, until she could move her arms again. Whenever that would be. This reminded her of something… something she'd seen recently.

 _In a dream, perhaps?_ She thought.

Mercifully, someone came to her rescue and lifted her head to assist her in releasing the bile she'd been hoarding.

There were some gasps around her that she ignored in favor of drinking the sugar water being pushed to her lips.

"Hanako, open your eyes," Kakashi's voice urged her.

She did as he asked and the full moon both beckoned and blinded her. She squinted and turned her head away from it, something that was frowned upon, catching sight of her friends' wings around her and some of their moon-marks that were visible. Their parents were helping them clean off the blood. She tentatively brought a wing closer to her line of vision, with great effort at the cost of the pain that still grappled her, expecting a similar beautiful translucent wing, the kind she hoped for. The kind that her mother had had.

Her excitement died when she beheld a skeletal one in its place. Iridescent, with scales dotting varying sections of her blood smeared leather-like wings. She drew back in disgust.

"Kakashi, what is this?" she croaked.

Heads turned toward her, but she couldn't address a single person or comment. Different, the word strangled her, but why? Kakashi held her close, turning her head to his chest. But she could already hear their judgement.

She was an abomination.

* * *

Hey, hope everyone enjoyed reading this. I sure didn't enjoy writing and rewriting it ten thousand times. Please leave a review letting me know what you liked, or what you would like to see, or what you think this might me leading to! Please just review in general, I need some motivation. I'm not even afraid to ask for it.

Don't worry, we will see our beloved Itachi in the next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer**_ _ **:** I do not own anything Kishimoto created. That's all._

* * *

Had it been his choice, Itachi would not have dared involve himself with the affairs of his uncle's conquered nation. It was selfish that he dared think such things, but if the world had been less cruel – and perhaps had he been extended a branch to pursue his own interests – he entertained the thought that he might have been on the exact hilltop he currently occupied. Itachi's preoccupation with his uncle's daily torments didn't allow for many moments under the sun basking in nature's offerings. Instead, much of his time was consumed with shedding the blood of others. Precisely what was expected of him that afternoon. His position was one that typically offered the king's ear and was much sought after, though he could do without it, but who more suitable than the clan's prodigal son to dispatch their enemies? A sentence he'd heard his king and the council elders utter time and again.

His horse shifted beneath him, disarranging patches of grass beneath its hooves.

"Lord Itachi?" Itachi's new and inexperienced shadow called out to him.

He inclined his head to acknowledge the younger man without turning from the sprawling hills before him. His company was merely a formality, a way to ensure that he would not attempt to flee his desolate life in search of greener pastures. After so many years, he'd grown used to the watchful gaze and presence of others. As though His Majesty did not provide him with enough incentive to do his bidding.

"Are we to accompany you to the village?"

Itachi closed his eyes, released a deep breath, and grasped the reigns to coax his steed in the direction of the youth.

"We will intercept the guards at the barracks during their exchange. From then on, we will work their shifts interchangeably, until we have located the person responsible for the riot."

The young man shifted uncomfortably atop his horse. "What happens when we find them?"

Itachi truly felt for the young man. He was obviously not fit for the post he'd been assigned, a recurrent theme among foot soldiers. If Itachi had been any other person, he would have thought his uncle incomprehensibly naive for having placed such an untried youth in the position of spying on his most hated nephew. Itachi knew, though, that the boy's lack of subtlety worked favorably for the king by having his subject's simultaneously fear someone who would put such an obvious tail – and having to do so at all – on the kingdom's most valiant nephew and fool the ones who _were_ being tailed into thinking their sovereign lacking. The boy's lack of qualification made him far more malleable than a seasoned soldier, but Itachi hoped to influence him into using that to his advantage.

"They will be tried before the village and beheaded for their crime of disturbing the king's peace, as it has always been done, Nomura."

Nomura nodded and opened his mouth, seemingly to say something more.

"Is there something else?" Itachi queried.

"No. Well… yes. I was just curious," Nomura scratched his cheek, inflamed with distress. "What is the point of a trial, if they are to be executed either way?"

The young lord's eyes narrowed at his subordinate. Nomura's spine aligned appropriately in response, and he looked past Junichi to study the two guards accompanying them. Upon declaring them sufficiently occupied with their own conversation, he returned his cautious gaze to his now sweating inquisitor.

He lowered his speaking voice to appease the man's curiosity. "The point of a trial, in this case, is to make an example of the offender. By the law of the crown, there is no argument to be made in defense of a person who disrupts the king's peace."

With that, Itachi decided he had taken far too many open risks for one day and pushed his horse forward without word to his other officers. The men scrambled to pack and mount their horses and for the next several moments, Itachi paid no heed to their shouted requests that he soften his speed. Their entourage covered the distance to the village in half of the estimated time, to which he was pleased. The quicker this tedious task was accomplished, the better, he thought. But then, he reconsidered, and while it was always a good thing to complete a task early, it's end would signify an earlier return to the castle and his uncle and his uncle's newest plaything. An emotional loss Itachi aimed to sequester.

Yes, taking his time would not be the wisest course, but it would also delay having to watch whatever the king had planned. Running from his uncle was just as despicable as doing the man's dirty work, but this had been his life for nearly a decade and the shame no longer tore at him in the same way. He bore it all out of love, even at the cost of others' lives.

He dismounted and entered the dwelling of the stationed soldiers. Upon entering, he counted seven men reclining throughout the room, one of which caught his eye and darted to his feet in a salute befitting a castle guard. His hasty reaction startled all but one man into position, the last of which seemed to Itachi to be in a deep sleep. Itachi scrutinized the sweating guard who stood closest to their unconscious comrade and watched as the man's eyes darted fearfully from his superior to the man lying curled on his side.

With jerky movements he bent low to slap the dozing man's shoulder. "Yamada!"

The man, Yamada, groaned and slapped the hand away. Itachi's eyes trailed back up the arm to the guard whose brow was now furrowed beseechingly and the young lord closed his eyes in contemplation, before unleashing the essence of his magic onto the room. He opened dark eyes to two men in the line openly cowering. Yamada rolled onto the stone floor in a state of panic, his cap snapping off of fair tufts, brandishing a dagger – at which Itachi raised a brow.

The blond seemed to read the room and upon recognizing Itachi, quickly jumped to his feet, bowing low and giving a respectful apology.

"The king has received word that there has taken place an uprising in the village you've been stationed," Itachi remarked to the recently awakened man. He left the statement in the air, clasping his hands behind him as though in serious thought and waited for the man to trip over himself about whether he should speak up or wait for Itachi to speak further on the matter.

Itachi turned his attention to the open window and admired the grassy plains visible from their second-floor vantage point. In the corner of his eye, Itachi noted the man gnawing at his lip simultaneously with the restless shift of the youngest soldier who accompanied him. Instead of addressing Yamada again, he turned to the guard who moved behind him. He stood before Nomura, still waiting for Yamada to speak.

With each passing moment, the youth he faced tried his hardest to resist fidgeting before his lord and he was failing miserably. Itachi noted the need to correct this weakness at a later date. In what he was sure was in an unfounded sense of camaraderie and sympathy to Itachi's visual victim, Yamada cleared his throat.

"There's not been an uprising, sir, just a minor skirmish with a female villager."

Itachi hummed, tilting his head without breaking eye contact with the man before him. "A skirmish. I wonder, then, how the king received this false information."

"I'm not sure, my lord. It was not our intention for this matter to reach the king."

He rotated slowly on his heel. "Then it was your intention to _keep_ this matter from the king."

Yamada sputtered, the scales on his temples crossing the threshold of his cheeks. He was anxious, but Itachi's performance was not quite finished.

"Of course not, my lord!" Yamada exclaimed. "We did not want to bother your royal selves with such a trivial matter."

"You've brought the girl to heel then?"

The man clammed up, his companions eyes looking everywhere Itachi wasn't.

"No," the man confessed. "We've been conducting a search within the village to retrieve the girl to properly punish her, but she seems to have disappeared."

"Disappeared."

"Yes, we've questioned the villagers about her but they all seem to be withholding information of her whereabouts."

"Hm. Have the shifts changed yet?"

"Yes, my lord."

At this, he dismissed all of the guards – save the one he had been speaking to – and had the man recount said skirmish. It was clear to Itachi that the man was an outright liar, as he stuttered through the story with unquestionably inaccurate details of the event that occurred. The fact that he refused to look Itachi in the eye was far from his only tell, and the young lord – although he allowed the man to continue to speak his fables – had already deduced that he would garner the truth of the events from the people.

Posing as a guard within Tsunade's village would be the most arduous task, prompting him to decide that it would be more beneficial to reveal himself to her straight away. While royal soldiers knew Itachi by face, common villagers did not have the displeasure, especially those from Tsunade's village.

As long as he'd known her, through his uncle's occupation of Tsuki, the woman did everything necessary to keep her village and its people out of the king's eye. When she was called to court, she made haste to the castle immediately. The village's taxes were always paid in full and on time, no matter it's constant fluctuations. Likewise, while Itachi had been called to other villages multiple times to quell greater dissent, the Leaf Village – as it was so called – and its leader had done all it needed to stay on the fringes of their society's awareness. All of this indicated that Tsunade was likely hiding something, but he had no desire to discover the truth behind her secret dealings. If his uncle had not yet caught wind of whatever it was there was no need to investigate. Of course, it was also a possibility she was so painstakingly careful simply out of worry for the well-being of her people… but his intuition knew better.

The room had been quiet for many moments before Itachi realized Yamada had ceased speaking and was now squirming under his fixed stare.

"You'll escort me the chief's dwelling. Following that task, you will return here with my guard," Itachi scrutinized both burly guards that accompanied he and his appointed spy. "You'll return with Whistler and receive your punishment of forty lashes. You have embarrassed yourself and the kingdom with your conduct, and have offended me with your falsehoods."

His tone was matter-of-fact. While it was true that Itachi had no taste for these things, they were necessary to dissuade the constant suspicion to his allegiance. It was clear that whatever situation had taken place had likely been at the hands of the shuddering man before him, and so he felt no regret for his decree. Yamada lifted his cap from his head and ran trembling fingers through his hair. Itachi noticed that although the man's hair was wisp-like in nature it was actually very thick. No words were shared between the two as the fair-haired man easily lead the group through the hidden paths to Tsunade's home at Itachi's behest, something the lord was sure to make note of.

An antsy woman with a neat black bob opened the door to what was evidently the entrance to the kitchens, her eyes darting around at the chests in front of her before raising her head to look up at the men crowding the doorstep and her lips trembled for a moment. The small woman released an exasperated sigh and bowed so abruptly that Itachi nearly stepped back.

"To what do we owe this honor, Lord Uchiha?" Surprised fluttered across his features to which the woman responded with a warm smile. "I'm not surprised you don't remember me, my lord. I am the lady's niece, Shizune."

The lord gave a shallow bow, his mind attempting to conjure a memory of her face in a crowd at court as he and his men followed after her, leaving Yamada behind with his eager guard. In the depths of his mind, whilst he couldn't recall her countenance, Itachi vaguely remembered a report sent to him very long ago that Tsunade was said to have a niece who-

' _Yes, my lord, the fae people have diverse power. Mine is of thought transference, telepathy,'_ Itachi's throat clenched at the new presence reverberating in his mind. Yes, now he remembered. What a useful tool for one to bring along when summoned to court, and one that was difficult to procure in this realm. Her talent was deliberately withheld, and with good reason. Any monarch or average man would abuse the power, as old tales and poems have recounted.

" _Very good, my lord. I hope you will not spoil the secret, however, because I have only revealed myself to you to assist in hastening you away from your guards. I know you prefer your solitude."_

She halted her procession abruptly and turned with a happy smile, short strands whipping about her cherub-like face. "Here are my lady's quarters, my lord," he stepped forward and his guards made to follow. "Unfortunately, foreign guards are not to enter the chief's rooms. You lot will have to wait out in the hall."

His remaining broad-shouldered guard opened his mouth to protest. Itachi expected nothing less and hoped she would be listening to his thoughts as he considered the harmless accompaniment of his assigned spy. The young man was not Uchiha and obviously known to the other men as the king's eye, so taking him along would quell their suspicion, he would also be more easily led. With that considered, magic could be used to coerce his psyche into the realm of illusion whilst he chatted with the chief.

Shizune eyed him, her expression nothing short of mischievous, and pursed her lips at the soldier's loudness.

"It is obscene of you to even consider requesting such a thing of this land's heir, so you'd best speak to your lady because-"

"Well!" she chirped. "I must apologize profusely, sir, for I have not listened to a word you've said. Your concern for your lord was the bulk of your argument, I presume? Well then, my lady is fair and understanding, I'm sure she would not mind if one guard stepped into her office."

The man drew in a breath and smoothed his hands over his doublet, at last appeased by her words.

Shizune opened the door and welcomed Itachi into its threshold, to which the guard proceeded to step in front of him. A tiny hand slapped against the soldier's chest and stopped him in his path, much to Itachi's amusement.

The small woman tilted her head at the younger man at the back of the two and inquired simply, "What's your name?"

Nomura's eyes flitted between his lord and superior officer, unsure. Itachi narrowed his eyes at him and Nomura took the hint. "Nomura Junichi, my lady."

She smiled and pushed the guard away with a puff of purple sparkles, only enough to set him back a few steps as he sputtered in anger. "Welcome, Junichi, please step in."

Itachi sorely wished to laugh at the scene, but instead maintained his expression and followed after her extended arm.

Tsunade's office was a mixture of grand and shabby. The walls, he could tell, had taken the brunt of her rumored anger many times. Some spots had been patched up, but the repairs were no match for his superior vision. The door shut behind him and Itachi glanced back at Shizune to be sure that she'd entered the room as well. His thoughts wandered to his young guard, who also examined the walls, and how an illusion should be cast on Itachi to maintain the color of his eyes.

" _How very diligent of you, my lord."_ She patted his back and, in his mind, he heard echoes of chime-like laughter. _"There you are."_

Tsunade turned around with pursed lips and a furrowed brow, almost exactly identical to one of Shizune's earlier expressions.

He turned to Nomura, the motion startling the young man and dropped like a swatted fly the moment he looked into Itachi's eyes. He caught him and carefully sat him on the lounge in the corner of the blonde's office, turning on his heel to face the woman once again.

"To what do I owe this visit, your princeliness?" His eyes held her fierce ones but he did not speak. "Oh, please. Of course, no sound escapes my office, you buffoon."

He nodded at her insult. This was the Tsunade he'd heard about, not the docile sleeve she transformed into on castle grounds. Shizune stifled a laugh behind him and the blonde woman shot a glare in her direction, as though she too could hear his thoughts. He assumed it was probably the case that Shizune was feeding them to her aunt.

"Now. Just what are you doing on my lands, Uchiha? I make it my business to keep your ilk from having a reason to step foot in my leafy paradise."

"Officially, I've been sent by His Majesty to survey an apparent uprising in your quaint homelands," he responded.

She snorted. "And unofficially?"

He shut his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose, a movement that would have been considered undignified at court.

"Look, it's not that I'm not happy that your here. Although, I'm not. It's just that whenever an Uchiha shows up anywhere, the mess follows. Dead people, burned cottages, theft of resources - you know what I'm talking about," Tsunade drawled.

Itachi stared at her blankly before replying, "A break."

She blinked. "A break."

"Yes."

"And the so-called rebellion? You can't expect me to believe the charming beast you have outside my door and any other guards you've surely brought along are happy to play holiday with you. This one here," she observed, wagging a finger at Nomura. "For sure. The rest? I'm not convinced. I know your uncle, and unlike many a blind fool in the kingdom, I know how much he truly hates and fears you."

Itachi gave her a true smile then. He gestured at the chair facing her and she nodded her permission to sit.

"Of course, I would make a good show of investigating this girl's whereabouts. You have her hidden away, I hope?" Tsunade inclined her head. "Then there's nowhere my guard's will find her. I'll take my leave after a full seven days. When I return to my dearest uncle, I'll inform him that the girl was hunted until the northern border, the Hyuuga lands, and dared not venture any further."

"And you just… trust that I won't send word of this to your uncle." Tsunade grinned at him menacingly, gesturing along with her words.

His smile remained, indifferent to her threat. "Yes. I know that I can trust your confidence in this matter, Tsunade." Her smile dropped at the slight shift in his tone. He was almost surprised she picked up on it, but then, of course he knew that she was a legendary force in these lands for a reason. "Because, if you did happen to betray me, word would reach me before the king. You see, I command the fear and respect of his armies, as I'm sure you are aware. Because of this, I would be required to do my duty of informing him of the insurrection being orchestrated by you that I had been investigating for however long.

"He would then praise me for my diligence, much like your niece did earlier." His expression cooled into its usual stoic mask and caught Shizune's disbelieving gaze in the window behind her aunt, whose breath was heavy with rage. "As such, he would have to send me to extinguish your forces and your village, and I would do so under my king's orders, like the good pet that I am. Of course, my men would want to be rewarded for a job well done, and so they would be rewarded with looting the homes still viable. I would do all of that and kill you last – just to be certain you witness the destruction you have wrought upon yourself...

"So, yes, I do know what you're referring to."

* * *

Hello there, fair folk, I've returned! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because I definitely enjoyed writing it. In it's original form, it's about nineteen pages long. SO. Here's eight pages for your pleasure. I'm cutting it kind of in half (I know this is less than half), because I felt that that was a great place to end and also because in the second half our two leads finally, FINALLY, meet. I just wanted to establish them a bit before I brought them together.

On that note, enjoy this chapter, and prepare yourself for some ItaSaku time in the next chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer**_ _ **:** I do not own anything Kishimoto created. That's all._

* * *

Breath was sparse and shallow where she could find it. Sakura remembered – and it didn't escape her that it was ridiculous to be remembering anything at the moment – when she hadn't yet spent many days in the village that was now her home. How desperately rebellious she was when their small family first arrived, and how once during that stage, she tried her hand at climbing a tree. Climbing trees, for any noble young lady – especially the princess – was a forbidden pursuit in the castle, among a list of other fun activities. During her wayward adventure, she lost her footing on a wobbly branch and fell into the Milky River that edged the west end of the village.

Because she was a child of royalty, she had not yet been exposed to the true joy of running amok. So, she drowned. Repeatedly. The waters of the Milky River were well-renowned for their regenerative powers, and each time her lungs began to burn with exertion, the water would lend her it's strength, only for her to suffer through the unrelenting torture at a greater persistence. The struggle came to an end when Kakashi fished her from the river, her coughing up pearl colored water and him soothing her with nonsensical reassurances.

It was in his arms, Sakura found herself again for the first time in many years. Mouth round with nothing to retch but her own sorrows.

"Come now, Hanako, get yourself together. Everything's going to be fine," Kakashi murmured to her.

A whimper was her response.

"Well, Ino's doing just fine. Shizune's got her in your room doing wing exercises, poor thing is itching to come running to the rescue though," Tsunade announced, entering through the open door.

"And the villagers?"

Sakura's breath hitched. "Don't fret, Kakashi, I scrambled everyone's brains the moment she said your name. None of them will remember, and if they do feel that their memory has been tampered with, they'll assume it to have been a Time Troll. Thankfully we have such an auspicious event to cover our tracks."

"Would making them forget this be as difficult?"

The young woman's eyelids snapped open, her breath quickening alarmingly. Tsunade's expression softened when she took note of Sakura's pleading gaze upon her.

"You know better. It wouldn't be possible without several Threaders, and you know they require consent to perform such magic. What I did was the most basic of forgetting spells, and only on the minds of those Shizune picked up on as having recognized your name. That was only about a handful, but this? It's most assuredly spread across the village like wildfire by now."

Sakura wrenched her eyes shut. She couldn't face the world as this monstrous creature she'd become. Her life's misfortunes seemed to only swell with time. Just as the opportunity to wield the reins of her future with confidence presented itself, her ambitions were flurried away with a twitch of her own deformity. She would never escape this place where she hid her identity to survive. Failing all else, as a child she had leaned on the hope that her mother's people would take pity on her enough to accept her as one of their own. But the Ethereal Court accepted none save those with qualifications into their realm. No matter whose daughter or granddaughter she happened to be, none were exempt from the evaluation of the couriers.

One of her wings twitched in agitation and it only succeeded in increasing the swell of tears from stinging ducts. What dreadful crime had she committed to the moon goddess that she would be cursed with such grotesque appendages? Their suitability for flight was still in question.

"Yes, well, I must ask that you do calm her down. I would do it myself, but all my power would serve to do is force her to rest. I need her awake and coherent."

Tsunade's exhale added tension to the already stifling atmosphere as she strode closer to Sakura's curled figure. Already rigid wings strained ever nearer to her body, just as a mangled sob bubbled from her throat.

"Hush, girl." Her chief fingered through tangled locks. "Everything is fine. _You_ are fine. Now, let's see if we can't relieve some of your pain, hm?"

A crescendo of chirps reverberated throughout her mind, the warmth of the blonde's green tinted hand eased Sakura's thoughts from a muddled catastrophe of self-pity to mellowed waves.

Sakura opened her eyes. "The Ethereal Court will never have me now. You have to know that," she croaked.

"I _don't_ know that, Sakura, and their royal high-asses had to have known that this was possibility when they all but sold your mother to your father." Sakura opened her mouth to protest, but Tsunade halted her progress with a scowl. "Yes, that _is_ offensive, but it is reality. I'm not saying your parents didn't love each other, Sakura, that's not at all what I mean.

"Loving as your father might have been, he was a king first. It was your mother's duty to produce an heir, and so she did and here you are. It's not untoward that a mixing of the species would have lead to a mutation at some point."

"This is something you've seen before then?" asked Sakura, unmoved.

Mouth agape, Tsunade floundered for a moment. "Uh, not exactly."

A scoff left Sakura's lips. Ino's embroidered pillow across from her suddenly proved much more interesting.

"That's not to say that it hasn't happened before, Sakura, there's been plenty of texts that allude to the birth of hybrid children-"

"Yes, well, with the risk of sounding like a _human_ ," Sakura spat. "I'll not place hope for my future on romanticized faerie tales, written by fae who didn't know the first thing about being an actual… _hybrid_."

Her throat constricted upon utterance of the word. That's what she was, a mix of the two species. It was one thing to read mystical tales featuring such creatures in children's books and another to be called such a thing.

"Sakura, this is not a bad thing. We're not even sure there will be implications," Kakashi reasoned.

She rose to a seated position and pierced him with a glare. "Says you. This is unnatural! When a child is born to a couple of two species, it's supposed to be born one or the other. There is no in-between option, it is known."

The brow above his eye-patch shot up. "You would deny your parents then?"

"What?"

"Your parents. You spur their genes because they are unfavorable to whatever image it is you're trying to portray, because you believe you are not ideal. Perfect, in the way society prefers." Her guardian tilted his head, a condescending smile lifting his lips. "Your prejudice knows no bounds, Sakura. I'll give you that. It's a curious thing to see the effects of court, even after years of forced exile, and how it has influenced you for the worst."

"Kakashi," Tsunade warned.

"You're right, you _should_ deny these gifts the king and queen passed along to you. They would be ashamed to see them wasted on such an ungrateful child, ashamed to know that they gave life to an intolerant wretch."

Sakura gaped at him as he ducked out her room, maintaining his smile.

"I- What? How could he say something like that to me? Tell me you don't agree with him!"

Tsunade pursed her lips and looked away from Sakura's beckoning gaze.

It was unfair to be addressed so decidedly without even the opportunity to defend herself. It was easy for someone to be a judge when they were not the one afflicted. But, perhaps it wasn't right to think so of Kakashi. He _had_ played the role of a defacto parental figure for herself and Ino, without so much as a complaint. No, she was right that he was being unfair, though. Kakashi was the master of lessons in vagueness, never providing an answer unless he was asked a direct question, and in some rare moments when he was in a mood, even that was reaching. If he found her intolerant, he should have said something to her sooner, rather than giving her the assessment in anger. To call her a disappointment to her parents when she had tried her hardest to achieve all kinds of success to honor their memories was dishonorable in itself.

The princess glanced down at the washed wooden floor and it registered that between her chief's soothing magic and her own disbelief at Kakashi's words, she had almost no room left to feel the devastation of her deformity.

The words he spat at her echoed pointedly in her mind then, and she knew he wasn't wrong when she grasped that simply acknowledging it as a deformity _was_ dishonor to her parents' memory. The rate at which she was second-guessing herself was dizzying.

"Well, to be completely honest with you, you _are_ acting like bit of a princess. Don't give me that look, I'm right and you're wrong – now, shut up," The blonde flicked a finger at her charge's brow to force away her glare.

"How could he say something like that to me about my parents? And you just sat there and let him, how is it fair that I should stand by and be spoken to like that with no one to come to my defense?"

"This is precisely your problem, Sakura, you think the world owes you something." A pale hand shot up to keep the young woman from interrupting. "I told you I was talking and you won't interrupt me. Maybe it's wrong of us, because we don't address your behavior the way we should. We've allowed your actions to go unchecked for years in Leaf because you were a princess and daughter to very dear friends of ours. Frankly, Kakashi and I have _no_ idea what we're doing. Neither of us have children and really, we've been playing this whole thing by ear for years now. But, enough is enough. You are _not_ as good as you think you are."

Sakura gaped. "What the hell is that supposed to mean!?"

"You're arrogant. In public, you pretend to be this savior of the people because you want some claim to fame among them, something tangible to remind you that they had all once looked to your family for guidance. You want that back and you'll do it at any cost, even at the safety of yourself and others. When Kakashi said that your arrogance knows no bounds, he hit the nail right on the head. You think you're better than others because of your lineage, but now that you have further proof of that, you reject it because of how these people you've been pretending to care for might think of you now.

"You're an extremely intelligent girl when it comes to everything but yourself, half of these things you probably never even realized until this very moment. Your invincibility complex is something to rival the ages, but there is something you need to realize."

Her hands slid across Sakura's cheeks and held them with firm hands.

" _You_ are _not_ a princess anymore! The world owes you nothing; not the throne, not safety, not even your parents. I know that is a harsh thing to say, but it is true. You have been passed down power, real power, and what you do with it will determine who you are to yourself, not the hero act you plaster on in the face of the villagers. Kakashi was right about one thing, you're parents would be disappointed in the person you are today. They would never have tolerated the prejudice and contempt and absolute hubris you exude. But, I know that you are capable of change, because you are my student and though you are young, you are smart enough to see and grow from the error of your ways."

With her grip still forced on Sakura's cheeks, Tsunade's eyes searched hers.

The chief tilted Sakura's head down and pecked the crown of it. She had never seen the woman behave so tenderly to anyone before, even Shizune bore the brunt of harsh words from her aunt and they were real family.

Tsunade's words resonated and the truth held her by the neck, forcing her to relive her own past actions. Those words weren't just a critical assessment of Sakura's integrity, they were formed out of concern. She _wasn't_ a princess anymore. All these years, she had been hiding behind that title because she wasn't ready to let it go, and she knew she still wasn't, so her task now was to make sense of this information. In her depths, she knew that renouncing her title was not an option and therein a juxtaposition was born. Because, she hadn't been heir to the throne in many years, but somehow the thought of being anything else churned her core.

Tsunade poked her chin up and grimaced at her.

"That's enough of that." She made a move to stand, but Sakura placed a hand on the woman's arm to stop her.

"Thank you, you've given me a lot to think about."

Sakura removed her grip from Tsunade's wrist and leaned forward to do her own wing exercises, shooing the village leader away when she flicked her blonde braid behind her and bent down to help. Ideally, reflection would be at the forefront of her mind, but she desired any distraction to postpone that eventuality. Instead, her focus was solely on the appendages she'd grown that night and how they hurt so good, good enough to keep her from thinking altogether.

Later, there would be enough time to consider her own disingenuous conduct.

After the successful application of the wing retraction theory, she pulled herself away from the cottage. Well, climbed would be more accurate. It had taken more than a little stealth on her part, simply visualizing the mess of a situation it would have become, had she attempted her escape with her wings out made her head ache. In the past, she'd seen countless fae complete actions that now seemed near impossible. If she couldn't even climb out of a window now, she shuddered to think of what other ineptitude she would uncover in the future.

As far as miscalculations went, her decision to just walk through the village as though it were any normal night, was beyond the criteria of a terrible idea. The civil people of her dwelling made no attempts to conceal their disgust. Her own peers, who she had just shared her strength with hours before, fluttered above her with unsure expressions. Head tilted toward the sky, she prayed to the moon goddess for protection from anyone with a wicked agenda and a vegetable in their hand.

But, reality stroked her jokes away with it's malaise when she reached forward a hand to greet Maemi and the girl's father whisked her to his side in response. There was a sure contempt in his eyes, Sakura recognized it as certain as it had been her own. Tsunade was right, the people didn't feel they owed her any loyalty from the heroism she'd imposed on them for the past eight years, and she found that it didn't upset her as it might have previously, because she had merely done it in her own self-interest.

People were often of a herd mind, twisting away from the slightest change and she had been one of them too, unaccepting of anything that wasn't the same. Though, it's not as though that mentality had completely vanished in the span of only a few hours.

A cringe painted her features. It was hard to admit even to herself that she would have to begin this growth by owning up to the truth that she wasn't better than others, as much as she had formerly led herself to believe.

Children ran around her with paper wings strapped to their backs, their elation was familiar. She remembered the previous year, Ino purchased a matching set for them both as a joke and they swore they weren't actually going to wear them. Then they proceeded to don the wings and spend the rest of the night sozzled on glitter wine. At the end of the night, Kakashi had to throw Ino over his shoulder and carry a very slumped Sakura under his arm to get back to the cottage. Her heart lifted at the memory, but she kept her smile off her face lest she provoke anyone's ire.

Bells chimed around her in song and people flew around the rooftops scattering flowers onto the celebration below them. A finger twirled around a loose hair on the side of her head. She was saddened that she couldn't enjoy it in the same way she had in the past. Something about the events of the night made her body feel afire with a sort of expectation, some not-so-distant memory tugged at her thoughts.

With each step, her slipper-clad feet removed her from the merriment and into a secluded area of the village. She struggled with underbrush and wayward branches on her little adventure. Her desire to take the path less traveled overpowered her common sense, it seemed, as spindly trees scraped her hands and pulled on the loose half-bun she'd done before leaving home. Hidden from the comforting gleam of moonlight, goosebumps raised along her arm, only settling when she phased through the gel-like barrier. Lying in wait before her, was the thing of her earlier ruminations, the Milky River.

Strolling alongside its bank, she felt at ease for the first time that night. The moonbeams embraced her, the mark below her eye was enveloped by the sensation of brushing lips.

She knelt into dew coated grass and looked up at the moon.

"Please guide me, Kiyo, I feel as though I have a great many things to learn in a very short time. Is something coming?"

There was no answer from the celestial being, nor did she expect there to be one. Her goddess had breathed more just than the same beckoning whispers Sakura had grown accustomed to during ceremony practice. She pushed her mind to return to that moment and a shiver shook her spine. The reassurances that she was so sure she had heard earlier that night echoed in a whisper against her ear once more, but she was at a loss. Was the the deity doing so to prepare her for the backlash she would receive, or was there something much more worrisome on the rise?

The glade and river were bathed in an enchanting blue, mirroring the night sky and she looked away from the moon to watch as fallen flowers flowed down the stream. It was quiet and dazzling. No one could see her now, bowed before powers stronger than she, and knowing that something was on its way. _Something indeed_ , she thought in response to an ominous rustle in the leaves behind her.

* * *

Throughout Itachi's lengthy life, he'd had many an occasion to learn about both the living and the dead. One thing that he found simultaneously amusing and mundane, was that as much as all species enjoyed squawking about their differences and imposing their self-righteousness on others, they were all utterly indistinguishable. Having spent the majority of his life on the sideline, observing the habits of those much like the fae he was currently feigning guard for, spotting the outcast was a relatively easy task. Even when he wasn't looking for one.

So, when he spotted her wandering down the busy road he'd stationed himself on, he was intrigued to see how she handled it. A pariah lived in every village, the population of which typically consisted of those with physical deformities, or those born from a ignominious lineage. Even girls with gracefully pretty faces, such as the one his and so many other eyes currently followed, he'd witnessed scorned and rejected by villagers nationwide.

Though her features seemed young, Itachi supposed she could be an adulteress. Although, with fae it was indiscernible because of their unreserved manner toward sexuality.

Her crime could be anything, as far as the people of Leaf were concerned. Yet, her demeanor betrayed nothing. She strode forward seemingly without direction, swathed in a flowery powder blue gown and a dazed expression. The firelight danced along her body, it's attempts to rid her of all shadows did not escape his notice. With the flowers raining down around her, she looked almost as though she didn't belong there on that road. Her appearance was akin to someone who was merely passing through.

But then, she lifted a hand in greeting to a short, long-haired girl. Unfortunately, the attempt was promptly shot down by a man who seemed to be the girl's father. The young woman's crestfallen body language tilted her head toward him and Itachi saw it clear as day.

A crescent moon framed the corner of her left eye. It's iridescent shade and the side it faced was unmistakably the mark of the House of Spring.

It was even more remarkable that the villagers' scrutiny didn't appear to be connected to the mark, however, it was undeniable that they knew the young woman far better than he. Yet, he was amazed that not a single person focused on such a telling feature. A moon mark was exactly identical to the one the former king, Tatsuya, had carried on his brow and on his banner. Leaf was a village of refugees, even one person should recognize the sigil of a monarch who was not yet a decade fallen.

Awaiting the opportunity his watchful guard's attention was drawn away, he followed her like the whispers she was escaping. He made certain to remain in the shadows, ushering the happy light from the flames away from him. Not that she noticed, consumed by her thoughts as she was. He carefully wove around tree branches, making certain he didn't make half the noise she was, but then the most peculiar thing occurred. The moment she stepped through the threshold, she disappeared. He inspected the treeline before him, for any trace of her, then deduced that there was a glamour beyond him. He shut his eyes and reopened them with a new perspective.

There was a glamour, tall as the eye could see and made with magic that flowed confidently. Magic that spoke to him in long forgotten tongues. The glamour wall was ancient, he knew without having to understand what the voices whispered to him, and built by something he could never hope to rival.

He wondered if he could step through barrier with the same ease, unlikely as it was, the experiment was worth an attempt. Surely, there would be a fail-safe that denied outsiders passage. He stepped forward with a hand before him, only to be rejected and bounced back into the brush behind him. Lifting himself from the ground, he dusted off the leaves and dirt attracted by his impromptu flight.

Light emitted from the spot he made contact with. If the girl hadn't already been aware of his presence, she most certainly was now.

A dark head popped out of the barrier, with a body that gradually followed.

"Uncle, is that you?" she called out. Beneath the soft tilt of her voice was a hint of annoyance.

Immediately, he regretted allowing his curiosity to get the better of him. Clearly, the girl desired solitude. He hadn't had a plan to act on that would justify him following her, his attention had simply been drawn by the sight of her mark. Just as he was about to vacate the area, her entire body returned to his side of the treeline. The girl was crouched low, a knife glinting near her hip.

Instantly, he noted that there was a lingering glamour around her head. Upon further inspection, he could see that it was its own entity, completely separate from the wall she'd just exited.

He tilted his head and her eyes found his in the darkness.

"You have about ten seconds to make yourself scarce, cretin."

He narrowed his eyes at her. There was so much daring in that one word. She was brave, of that he was sure. It wouldn't have mattered who had been outside the barrier, she would have dismissed them with the same vehemence.

Suddenly, he was positive that whatever quasi uprising had occurred in the village had been at the hand of this girl, a daughter of the House of Spring. He respected her bravery all the more for it, foolhardy as it was.

"You are brave without caution," he rebuffed, blandly.

She squinted and adjusted her grip on the dagger. "What?"

"You knew I was not your uncle, yet you still opened yourself to attack," he observed. "It is a fool's errand to look for a fight, especially when you're blind to your opponent."

Her expression curled with distaste. "Yes, well, there's something to be said about creeps who skulk around the forest, waiting to give random and unsolicited advice to unsuspecting young women."

"You did not have to leave the safety of your barrier."

She snorted in a way that he thought was out of character for her appearance and rolled her eyes for emphasis.

"How very like a man to blame his own suspicious behavior on the woman he's disturbing."

He bristled, then realized she was exactly right. He had been feeling ashamed because he let his inquisitiveness get the better of him, and the whole while he had been behaving like an undignified prowler.

He straightened his spine. "My apologies, it wasn't my intention blame my behavior on you."

"And what is your behavior?" She frowned distrustfully.

"My behavior is not of one who skulks around the forest waiting to give random and unsolicited advice to unsuspecting young women."

His response could nearly be classified as sheepish. Perhaps a holiday from the castle was precisely what he should have avoided, clearly he did not know how to function beyond its walls. He could say with the utmost certainty, that this was the first time he'd felt embarrassed in his life.

The air was still for a moment and the girl squinted her eyes at him once more, making certain of something he was unaware of. Unsure of whether the moonlight was to blame, or if it was natural, he was mindful of how green her eyes were. They were like forest gems, enhanced by a vibrant glow.

"Who are you anyway? You're different from the usual scum they send our way."

"Different in what way?"

She considered him for a moment. "You speak like you have some semblance of propriety and the way you carry yourself is more dignified. That's more of a palace guard trait, wouldn't you agree?"

The corner of his mouth twitched at her assessment.

"And you would know this how? I've yet to see you in the palace."

"I'm right then?" She smiled triumphantly.

"Your observation skills are sound, despite your lack of self-preservation." Another twitch.

The longer they spoke, the more at ease the young woman became. He should cease his encouragement of this conversation. His stay in the village would be short, but his guard would be sure to make note of him befriending anyone and he shuddered to think of the consequences. Midori's grim fate within Tsuki's walls danced at the forefront of his mind.

In recent months, there had been a desperation in him, after years of an ever present watchful eye. He was becoming less careful in his dealings, in him was a desire for a companion. To have someone near him - anyone - who did not have an ulterior motive or malicious agenda, to speak to. It was what he and Midori had been blessed with for the shortest time, although he had not cherished it well enough to protect her from his uncle's clutches. Yet, here he was being rash once again.

"Coming from you, I'm not convinced," she laughed. "Since you don't seem to be well-acquainted with these parts, this area along the west end of the village is off limits to your kind. Along with the ten miles that follow."

"My kind?"

Her words were curious to him, he was amused by her separation of herself.

"Yes, your kind, dragon."

"Are you not of my kind as well?"

Her brow furrowed. "Why would you think that?"

"Your words and your moon-mark tell conflicting stories." She stared at him as he spoke, evidently lost. A breeze brought a few strands close to her face and she brushed them away, eyes wide and waiting for him to continue.

"I'm sure you know that moon-marks are almost exclusively clan specific." She nodded for him to continue. "Although most dragon clans worship the sun goddess, there are exceptions. Your mark comes from one such exception."

He didn't want to say the name of the house, if only to keep her from being startled away. It wasn't unheard of these days for a dragon to live among fae, but to also be unaware of their own lineage was unusual. The scales that dotted her shoulders, she had to know were not a faerie trait. She brushed claw-tipped fingernails to her mark and flinched away from the contact.

Something nagged at him. She'd participated in an ascension with the fae in a faerie village, yet when she spoke to him she did not address herself as one of his kind, which meant she intended to be one of theirs. Stranger than that, he suddenly felt the desire to stop asking questions. Whatever secret this girl was harboring, he somehow knew he did not wish to become aware of.

The way she looked at him now, almost pleadingly, made him wary. She wanted him to know something that his mind did not. But, just as she opened her mouth to speak, a voice called out from the depth of trees behind him.

"Hanako!"

The shell of his ear twitched and he tilted his head to glance in the direction of the voice. Hanako. His eyes beheld her more clearly than before and his brows snapped together.

 _Impossible_ , he thought. _I was only a boy, much younger than she. This cannot be the same woman._

Branches ruffled closer and she peered beyond him, startled. Swiftly, she moved forward and pushed at him. He didn't budge when she did, but took the hint when she released him and he hid behind a tree.

"Hey, finally! You have to come back to the house, they wanted to speak to us about something important."

She nodded, a forced smile on her lips. "Okay."

Whoever had come to fetch her began their trek the opposite way and she grabbed his hand.

"Tomorrow," she whispered to him, then she was gone.

He freed his wings mechanically, mind racing all the while, and took to the skies.

* * *

Our leads have finally made each other's acquaintance! Was it everything you thought it would be? Excuse Itachi's demeanor, when I was writing him, it was in a Meet Joe Black vacation kind of way. What about that end, by the way? They're definitely not worried about the same thing. Leave a review telling me how your loved or didn't love this chapter, and what you think is going to happen next. I'm not completely satisfied with how it turned out, but oh well. All critics are welcome!

Thank you to everyone who's been following the story up until now and leaving kind words in the reviews. Happy Holidays!


	6. Chapter 6

Ino's muffled speech intertwined with remote drum beats. Thumps caressed the trees into a hum of contented rustling, the holy light of the moon lit a path toward the darkest corners of the woodland. Preoccupied with the memory of the strange guard, and the terror of that glint of recognition in his eye, Ino's words went unacknowledged.

Bringing this incredibly unlikely development to the attention of her guardian and the village head shook her. It was no fault of her own that her moon-mark was so widely conspicuous. Wholly distracted by her own commotion, it hadn't occurred to her to check the shape of it prior to leaving the house. Her recollection of her walk through the village square highlighted nothing specific of the villagers contemptuous whispers with regards to her mark. Their focus — her heart clenched — appeared to be latched onto her newfound dissimilarity. Although, she hadn't truly been listening for anything, and caught only the wave of a whisper now and again.

No doubt, blame for the guard's newly acquired knowledge would be hers to face alone. She'd left the house without warning, and although she wasn't exactly barred from doing so, Sakura should have known better. Unbelievably (but not really), it was also common knowledge that moon-marks were almost unfailingly hereditary. Impulsivity was _definitely_ one of the behaviors Tsunade had alluded to during their earlier talk.

Green eyes remained fixed to her slipper clad feet. The path Ino had chosen took them the long way 'round the village and for that she was grateful. Her hazy bravery from earlier did not extend to a sequel, largely because she was now heavily worried someone would recognize the sigil of her father's house.

She shuddered to think of the destruction that could befall them. More distressed than she had been at the thought of the backlash Ino might experience, she agonized that she would bring further danger into Ino's life with this disastrous misstep.

A large shadow flew overhead with none of the magic sheen that followed fae, and the urge to run overwhelmed her. She kept her composure, unwilling to alert her friend that anything was amiss.

Hopefully, she could concoct some believable story about her grievous error along the way. For now, though, she couldn't reason it in her mind. The fact of the matter was that she proved herself reckless, and after Tsunade's words earlier, she was very much afraid to admit it. An apology would do nothing to soothe the black fire she might have brought onto their heads. In hindsight, she acknowledged the wisest course of action would have been to stay in the cottage well beyond her death.

Sakura's step stuttered.

Discomfort swirled in her belly. Not at the onslaught of panicked thoughts, but at the realization that she had no idea what to do. Not just about the guard, but about her future.

The blonde's near rhythmic speech ceased as she glanced back at Sakura for her lapse of unsteady step. Sakura shook away the startling thought and brushed aside loose ebony strands, the corners of her mouth lifting into a wavering smile.

Not one to be so easily led, Ino laid a hand on Sakura's arm.

"Hanako," Ino began as softly as she could. "Have you heard anything I've said?"

Cheeks flushing, Sakura shook her head.

"I thought so. What's going on in there? It's like you're caught in a mermaid's bubble." The blonde grasped the other young woman's hands. "Are you still worried about before? Tsunade told me she used conciliating magic on you…"

Green eyes widening, she quickly looked away and nodded. Inwardly, she scolded herself for being so obvious. Her persisting stress had undone the chief's magic. Unbelievable, and yet, this ridiculously timed chain of events reminded her what complacency taught her to forget. How to live everyday as though she were on the brink of death.

Ino squeezed her hands. "You're still scared."

Comforted by the action, the brunette raised her eyes to meet Ino's and was taken aback when she found herself eyeing her own profile instead. Giggles rang through the air, startling Sakura into glancing this way and that, to confirm their solitude. Confused nose twitches noted there was no scent of sour berries that often accompanied the wisp fae. Lips trembling, Sakura watched as her mouth opened to speak and Ino's lilting voice drifted toward her.

"Wha-" Ino started, just as bewildered. A sort of realization dawned in what were now Ino's eyes and she swatted the air in an unconcerned motion. "You don't have to be scared of change. I know it hasn't really done us any favors in the past, but that doesn't mean it's always bad. What matters is that I'll always be on your side and you'll always be on mine, right?"

The expression she wore was more confident than Sakura had seen on herself in years. It bespoke fearlessness and defiance and assurance, and Sakura wanted it. She desired that confidence to be more than physiognomy.

A few seconds passed and it registered that Ino was waiting for a response. She nodded insistently, to which Ino gave a small smile.

Their hands separated with a jolt and Sakura caught herself on a nearby tree. Both their heads shot up, faces painted with incredulous expressions.

"We should… get home?" Ino suggested.

"Uh-huh."

They made a point not to initiate contact for the remainder of their walk. Sakura's mind reeled from Ino's manifestation of power, the event had her brimming with an incredible sense of foreboding.

She was happy for Ino, it was a blessing to have received a power from the goddess at all. Vaguely she recalled a conversation with Kakashi about the abilities that might be gained during their night under the full moon. Ino's were a little more clearcut, because her family had controlled the mind's of others in some form for generations. Sakura, however, was unsure whether she'd attained a power at all. Statistically, her opportunities were split in four; her father's power, her mother's, no power at all, or a power unique to her. The latter being the least likely, as it was — _theoretically_ — a rare occurrence.

Judging by her wings appearance, if she were looking from an outside perspective, they did have the consistency of dragons wings. Eyeing the previously unnoticed scales on her shoulder, she decided that the possibility of a dragon form could not be overlooked. Perhaps she would ask Kakashi about the mechanics of changing forms, whenever her anger decided to cool. She supposed it had to bear some similarities to shrinking into wisp form, but that was also something she only knew of in theory.

Crushing the groan bubbling in her throat, she stared up at the sky silently begging Kiyo to take pity on her.

Finally reaching their home, the two climbed over the fence to their backyard and let themselves into the kitchen where Kakashi and Tsunade were already sat waiting for them.

Tsunade's annoyingly perceptive gaze narrowed on them. "Something happened, what happened?"

Sakura and Ino shared a look, the former shrugging in confusion.

"An out of body experience?" Ino joked.

Sakura snorted. The teapot on the stove steamed with the scent of fresh raspberries, she suddenly wanted to know of nothing but the sharp flavor clawing its way down her throat.

"Where did you go?"

"To the river."

She kept her back turned while she poured her tea. Neither of them could know simply by looking at her, but logic and fear had a tendency to derail even the most sane beings. Silence was her response, the type that told her that they were waiting for her to turn. When she didn't, the chief spoke again.

"Did anyone see you?"

Guilt pressed her eyes together.

"Yeah, at least the entire village. I walked through the square."

Tsunade let out a sigh. "And beyond that?"

"No." She'd meant to say yes, it would be better to admit her error now rather than later, but her lips had other plans.

"Good. That's very good." A false sense of ease spread through Sakura's body. If anyone hadn't believed her, they would have already said so. "This afternoon, when I got done yelling at you, I had a visitor. With the guards being barred from the ceremony – as usual – your uncle and I didn't feel that there was cause to worry. Of course, I wasn't taking into account that you would leave the house after… Well, after."

Sakura turned to face them all, holding her grimace unashamed. The woman's face was contorted uncomfortably, but that didn't particularly trouble her because Tsunade was most uncomfortable when speaking of emotional occurrences. Prior to leaving the house, she'd taken into account that there would probably be questions about her excursion – especially after the episode she'd had – but thinking about consequences and dismissing them was different from experiencing them in real time.

"But, you have always been allowed to leave the cottage on your own and I had no desire to cause a panic between you and Kagami."

Ino flicked her eyes to Sakura's in exasperation. "Lady Tsunade, is this _going_ somewhere?"

"Oh, sorry, did you have somewhere more important to be?" she growled.

Sakura held back another snort that threatened to break free. Letting Ino have this one wouldn't hurt her.

"Now." Tsunade lifted a sarcastic brow. "Since the guards were banned and you didn't have the displeasure of encountering them, there is a temporary new addition to their ranks. The young lord, Itachi."

Horror widened Sakura's eyes almost comically. _No, no, no, no,_ she lamented. _Of all the things that could happen anywhere, at_ any _time, this cannot be happening now._

Dilating pupils smothered pale viridian. Sakura brought a trembling cup to her chest in time with Ino's gasp. A chilling darkness stilled her body, shrouding the lively landscape of her mind. Something could be heard in the distance, a voice or a hum. Her heavy breaths eclipsed all senses, until the scent of burning flesh ravaged her nostrils. In her fright, Sakura's eyes darted around, unable to register anything they landed on.

A woman's voice called out to her. There was an urgency behind it, but her words were muffled.

She was startled back to reality when Ino's hand brushed against hers.

Her eyes flashed around the room once more to make certain the firelight covered everything, and in that moment her imagination played a violent trick on her. She imagined that every time her gaze landed on a shadow it brightened.

Foolish was the only way she felt she could be described. She'd earned the title with her demeanor _and_ her thoughts. It surprised her that the word hadn't been one of her titles at birth.

Safety was an illusion, there was no disguise that could perpetually keep one out of harm's way. Of course, out of all the strange men she could have encountered in the forest, it would be the one she feared most.

His reference to the palace, the calculated way he observed her – a killer's gaze. There was no mistaking who it had been... _Itachi_. It was near impossible to remember all the nobles she'd encountered in her previous life, but the features of the Uchiha were unique to their house. She was supposed to be smart enough to recognize at least that, and yet she couldn't distinguish the actual danger emitted from a charming demeanor.

Sickness swelled violently in the depths of her belly, and her companion's rapid breaths matched the rhythm of her heart. The counter behind her acted as support, being the only thing preventing her from succumbing to wobbly knees.

That man was the distant figure of her family's gruesome past, never seen but imagined in contorted and frightening ways. A nightmare, yes, and a polite one.

Flashes of death tittered across her mind, his face looming over the bodies of innocents. She and her little family stood no chance against the exalted killer. The man who, soldiers boasted around her at nine summers old, had struck her father from this world. His only legacies; an empty castle, subdued subjects, and an exiled daughter who shared his crescent mark.

She would join him and the countless others whose lives were snuffed out by the Uchiha's hand.

The gods painted her a fool, a fool who had just stood face to face with her greatest fear and had a casual conversation with him. _Insulted_ him, without scruples, like he was any other man. Worst of all, he _recognized_ her. That alone sealed their fate.

Looking into Tsunade's eyes, she resolved to tell the truth, but her chief spoke again before she could.

"Girls, calm yourselves. I know just hearing his name must feel like the end of days, but I have good news. As good as it's gonna get, anyway."

" _Good news_? Lady Tsunade, all due respect, I don't see sharing moonlight with the _snake_ who killed our families as anything other bad news. Have you both lost your minds!"

Eyes wide and pinned in place by her own fear, Sakura watch Ino take a furious step forward. The snake comment burrowed straight into her spine.

"Uncle, don't you have anything to say about this? You can't seriously believe this to be a good thing."

She didn't look at him, because she feared his perception, but from her peripheral she didn't see him move in any significant way. He was going to let Tsunade do the talking this time then, he didn't think they would listen to him.

"Your uncle agrees with me," Tsunade stated firmly.

"My _uncle_ can speak for _himself_."

Whatever kind of standoff this was turning into, Sakura didn't want to witness it's escalation. Ino had new powers and she was prone to losing hold over her emotions, one wrong move and an unknown ability could rip a hole in the cottage. Anxiety had her sliding her hand around Ino's wrist in a single motion, and before she knew what she was doing, Sakura pulled her friend backward with force.

"Thank you, Hanako." Ino's stare burned into the side of her face, which she ignored in favor of nodding for Tsunade to continue. "The good news is that he's not a danger to either of you."

Ino scoffed and snatched her arm from Sakura's grip to leave the room.

"Kagami, you will stay and you will listen. This is important," Kakashi scolded.

"I won't stay here and listen to how we're going to cater to a murderer and then be convinced how that's somehow a good idea!"

"He is not here for anything other than some time off. Look, girls, even I can't believe I'm saying this. The king sent him to investigate an uprising." The woman affixed Sakura with a poignant stare and her breath stilled. "But, he told me in very expressive words that he doesn't care, the guard was lying and it was obvious, and he wants to use this as an opportunity to take time off."

The younger blonde dug against her eyes with the heels of her palms. "Tsunade, this is ridiculous, since when does that good for nothing warmonger ever take time off from murdering for his master? Be honest with me. He's here to kill us."

The chief rolled her eyes at the declaration.

"Take it down a notch, why don't ya? He is not here to kill us."

"How do you know that? He came here on orders and told you he wants to take a vacation and you just believed him?"

"First of all, since you obviously need the reassurance-"

"Don't do that, don't make it sound like I'm being crazy about this!"

"Well, girl, your yelling isn't exactly helping your case. Now, I will continue without interruption," she pinned her with a glare. "Shizune read him. Now, yes, he is one of the most talented thinkers I've ever met, but he meant what he said. I wouldn't be sitting here if he didn't, not for his lack of threats. Regardless of the horror stories and his ruthless reputation, I know the kid. Itachi never does anything that he isn't ordered to. Never mind the fact that he has no idea of your existence in this village."

Sakura huffed out a breath of disbelief. The story didn't sound very convincing, as much as she wanted to believe Tsunade, and she couldn't exactly will the memory of recognition on his face away. Not alone in her thoughts that the tale was far-fetched, Ino squeezed Sakura's hands beseechingly.

"You can't be calm about this… you're worried too, right?

She stared into Ino's eyes, considering her words carefully. Then in a motion faster than she could follow, she was looking at her own face for the second time that night.

"Shit," Ino cursed from Sakura's body.

Hastily, Sakura released her hands and the sensation of returning to her body clashed with mischievous giggles.

"Ino, I never thought I would say this, but _please_ stop touching me," she groaned, knees buckling. Grasping at her scalp, she made an unsuccessful attempt to dispel the spinning.

The recovery from Ino's slip was significantly worse than it had been the first time, Sakura agonized.

"What's that you two just did?" Tsunade queried.

"We keep switching bodies," Ino whined.

Kakashi hummed. "You've inherited the abilities of your father's house then."

"What? I thought my mother was the one who could do that?"

"No, your mother could lure people to her," Tsunade clarified. "In any case, this means that you should probably steer clear of touching anyone until you get a handle on that. We have many things to speak to you girls about, but we'll do that on the morrow because it's late and I still have festivities to attend."

Both young women shot her looks of disgust for her taking advantage of the change in atmosphere. How anyone could think of celebrating anything after the news she'd just dropped on them was ridiculous.

"Before I go, I want to warn you two to keep your heads low during this week. And Ino, you should probably take a glamour to your hair."

"Why?"

"Because you bear a striking resemblance to your father, and in the interest of not getting everyone hung you'll want to keep the attention away."

A puff of air brushed against Sakura's skin. The moment had passed, but her heart beat insanely still. The chief's assured declaration that Lord Itachi didn't know about them unsettled her, she didn't have a hope in shades of making it out of her own foolishness alive.

Should he decide to finish the job his king started, there would be no stopping him. Still distressing the strands at the beginning of her scalp, she listened distantly to Tsunade instructing them to be prepared for the upcoming flight practice. A return to normalcy was the furthest thought from her mind, instead she would focus her energy on forgoing sleep for the night. If he did come, he would be met with a field of grass. She would shield their house from view, even if it meant she would have only one more night.

* * *

Form rigid and pensive, Itachi stood in the exact spot he'd occupied the night previous. The guards that weren't Nomura had fussed over him like startled mother hens, suspicious of where he'd scampered off to while their eyes were averted. And while he offered no explanation, they seemed just as relieved that they hadn't misplaced the king's pet. The village square was greatly subdued after the night's festivities, even well into the afternoon. It allowed his mind the freedom to wander.

Neither his dreams nor his thoughts allowed him a moment of peace. So plagued was he by the face of a woman long dead, and the leather that framed it. More than composed enough not to release the grimace he felt, he hardened his expression. A young faerie who had been watching him with a delicate smile yelped at his change in demeanor and scurried away.

It didn't make sense to continue dwelling on the subject, he would receive his answers soon enough. If only he possessed his usual bout of unyielding patience. Of course, these things never did work out in his favor.

Allowing his shoulders to droop a bit, in reluctant acceptance, the sheen of calculating green eyes beguiled his mind. Confident swipes of an agile sword against his, and quickly encroaching clouds above them. Behind her stood a distant male figure whose face was hidden in the shade.

Stiffening his posture once more, he eyed newcomers circling the village square. He hadn't thought of her in many years, the recollection seemed to him more dream than memory.

Tranquil winds lifted his bangs, nearly blocking the sight of a young brunette clad in a green tunic-like dress that would have scandalized court ladies. On her face was unadulterated mischief, the look of someone confident in their playfulness. It reminded him of a similar expression that often graced the face of the demon prince. She wore her dress with intention and he appreciated the humor in the scene she created, the purposeful smiles at the older women eyeing her with disgust, and the genuine ones she flashed at the women who complimented her.

He stepped further into the shadows, gaze locked on her in interest. Just before knocking, she tilted her head back and popped her thumbs up at another person some distance away. His eyes slid to her companion and the figure dominating his thoughts.

Crouched between a shrub and a house, Hanako looked on, stressing her bottom lip in worry. He found this quite peculiar, knowing that fae could reduce their size significantly. Usually – to his knowledge – that was one of the first things fae learned when they weren't trying to master everything simultaneously after their ascension.

His attention was seized by the door opening, revealing the face of the young woman Hanako attempted to greet during the festival. His curiosity turned his eyes back to where she was hidden, where he expected to find her still anxiously observing the scene. Her attention, however, was on him.

"Good tidings, Maemi," the brunette greeted.

Footsteps crept toward the two girls, he listened but kept his eyes on hers. Hanako's gaze pleaded with his, yet he was unsure of what he could have done in the last few moments to warrant the tormented expression she sent his way.

"What business have you here, Kagami of Greenbloom?"

The father's appearance, if she could hear him, didn't startle her in the least. The source of her fear, he deduced, was unequivocally him.

"Sir, I've told you many times, you don't have to be so formal with me," the brunette assured.

"So you have, Kagami of Greenbloom."

In an attempt to placate her, Itachi softened his expression and lifted a brow. Suddenly, the father moved to push his daughter out of the way. Itachi attached his eyes to the stout man and was surprised to find the man looking at him. He then slid suspicious eyes to the right where Hanako was, and Itachi realized that he'd given her position away.

With great haste, he unfurled his wings and lifted himself into the air, startling passerby's. From his vantage point above them, he took note of Hanako settling back into her hiding place, head tilted up, observing him. The father of her friend was nowhere in sight. He took that as his victory.

* * *

"I apologize, Hanako, for my father's behavior yesterday. He didn't–"

"Kiyo, Maemi," Ino groaned. "Don't you say he meant no harm, he meant all of the harm."

The shy girl didn't try to correct her, but Sakura wasn't offended. She knew her friend was just trying to be polite. So many things had changed in barely a day, but at least she could trust her friends to stay the same.

Her thoughts about her effect on Ino's reputation yesterday were for naught. There _was_ justification in her distress over Ino's safety. The young lord's very erratic ascent during their mission to retrieve Maemi agitated Sakura. His presence in the village was highly variable, the so-called vacation could turn into a slaughter at the drop of a ribbon and everyone around her – save Ino – were unaware of the dangers they faced.

That was fine. The girls sat before her were the important ones, the other villagers were just placements in the backdrop of more important happenings. Her relationship with them was just as uncertain as the man who'd killed her family, and her ability to trust them with her life was severely stunted due to the speed with which they'd turned their backs on her.

She smiled at her friend reassuringly. "Don't worry about it, I know you didn't mean anything by it."

Maemi hunched forward in relief and Ino threw a hand around her shoulders, purposefully crushing Maemi to her side.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. We wanted to hear about _you_!"

Sakura leaned forward as if to share a secret. "Right, in all the mess we didn't get to see how you were doing."

"There was nothing too exciting really." She looked up into Sakura's grassy gaze with a humble smile. "I tasted honey wine. Of course, father was initially disappointed because only the gathering merchant fae receive such a mild blessing. But, while he was voicing his disappointment, I hoped to disappear…"

Ino's hand dove into the shy girl's hair in a calming rhythm.

"Then the most peculiar thing occurred! One moment father was speaking and the next he was calling out for me, which I thought was very strange because I hadn't moved. When I spoke to say so, he started very violently." Her eyes shone with excitement.

"You disappeared?"

"Yes! I didn't know how to put an end to it either, so I remained in that state for nearly three hours. It was an entertaining night."

Sakura jumped up and encompassed Maemi in a breathless hug. Ino joined with vigorous squeal and knocked them all to the grass.

When the girls excitement settled, they helped themselves back onto their blanket.

"Maemi, that's fantastic! There's no way the Ethereal Court won't consider you a candidate, you'll finally be able to get away from this happy-go-lucky prison!" Ino rejoiced.

Sakura maintained her smile, but her thoughts turned dark at Ino's admission. She had the highest of hopes for Maemi, but none for herself.

The possibility that she would be accepted with the same open arms as her friends grew less and less likely. If the residents of her own village had turned away from her so easily, she was almost positive her mother's people would overlook her with upturned noses. As elite as the Ethereal Court was considered, they were aristocratic in their total disregard of anything other than perfection.

Once again, fear consumed her at the thought that she would be left behind. The fate of a bitter former princess who had to hide behind glamour's to preserve her life and the lives of those around her, not accepted by any of her people. Ino lifted a quizzical brow at her and she realized her smile probably looked as uneasy as she felt. She shook her head and Maemi slowed her soft but excited speech to look in her direction as well.

Her smaller friend twisted in Ino's ever present embrace to speak. "Hanako, I hope it isn't rude of me to ask…"She tilted her head to send Ino a questioning glance. When she nodded Maemi faced her with eagerness. "Your wings, are they well?"

Sakura was grateful that Maemi had enough mind not to ask the question that plagued even Ino's mind.

"As far as I know, they're fine. I can exercise them, but I still don't know if they'll be okay for flight…" She considered for a moment, if it would harm them overmuch if she told her friend a sliver of the truth. So far, Maemi's loyalty had never wavered in all of their years of friendship, but recent happenings had the princess doubting even her steadfastness. That the young woman even spoke to her when the entire village seemed to have labeled her pariah in less than a day was proof enough that some of the truth couldn't hurt. "It's… a side effect of being a child of mixed species. The chief says she doesn't think there's anything to worry about, even though she'd never seen anything like it."

Maemi accepted the truth without a beat. She hummed and nodded, then her face scrunched together in thought. Sakura and Ino were sick with apprehension as they waited for her next question. Resolved in whatever thoughts she worked through, she asked, "What did you taste?"

"It was awful. Like the essence of the damned, or a carcass." Sakura's eyes narrowed at the treeline.

Maemi noted Sakura's distraction and turned her attention back to Ino to ask the same question. Sakura allowed herself to be consumed by her thoughts, she knew already from Ino that the girl had tasted a field of what could only be described as rotting flowers. It was the standard for her house, and Ino was almost disappointed at the fact.

What Sakura wouldn't give to have such minuscule worries. Her friends couldn't help her, though. Nor could she help herself. She would have to get used to watching them live carefree lives and ensuring that they stayed that way. That future hadn't yet been determined out of her reach, but it was looking more probable as the hours passed.

Even worse, she now had to deal with the problem that was a particular young lord. Or, not deal with him at all.

Her companions chatted animatedly as Sakura watched a slow wind dance along the treeline. The leaves were whispering. She furrowed her brow and looked to the other girls who were suitably occupied. Leaning forward on her elbows, she listened harder to what was being said. The familiar voice furrowed her brow.

Sakura's face slackened. Urgency accompanied the goddess's whispers. There was no clear message, but the rustling leaves spoke of danger. Sakura slipped an eye to Ino once more and found her planting a kiss to the corner of Maemi's mouth. She couldn't leave them tonight, it was far too dangerous. When the trees spoke, one listened. She would face the young lord's wrath another day.

* * *

Hello, I'm back. Hold the applause. We'll just pretend I didn't have this thirteen page mess sitting on my laptop since April because I wasn't satisfied with it. To be completely honest I had several more pages written in a notebook that just weren't working for me, and a bunch of ideas that were scrapped. I finally decided to keep it simple and here we are.

Please don't hate me too much. Review and let me know how you liked it. Leave suggestions for improvement, where you would like to see this go, and even your favorite characters up until this point. Also, shout out any mistakes you see! We love a good laugh.

I would like to say explicitly that I am not abandoning this story! I do try to update quickly, but what kills that is how very critical about my writing I am. I'm trying to get better at what I do and it sets me back a lot. Please be patient with me.

See you next time!


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